Even If You're In the Deepest Darkness, I'll Be Your Light(Digi ver)
by PrincessofKingdomHearts16
Summary: Digimon version of this story.
1. Bio

Name: Hikari

Age: 15

Looks: Ice blue hair with iris highlights, sapphire blue eyes, pale skin, pale pink lips, thin, tall.

Relations: Yusuke(foster father), Hanako(foster mother), Riku(foster brother/crush), Sora(best friend), Kairi(best friend), unknown biological family.

Partner: Salamon

Outfit(as a child): A white top with navy lining on the chest and collar, decorated with three small bows, each held by a gold button. The navy skirt has a single streak of white at the hem and a slight ruffled pleat. On her feet are white strappy sandals. (Look at PriPara; Mini Ribbon Refreshing Coord).

As a teenager: A white T-shirt with sea-foam colored accents. It is worn with a blue and purple pleated skirt and a bright yellow jacket with a single, colorful badged placed on it. Burnt orange slip-on shoes with black coloring underneath and pink laces. Comes with a pair of tall white socks with stripes of blue and pink on top, and a yellow cloth tied around the ankle (Look at Aikatsu; Miracle Casual Coord. She also wears four bracelets on her left wrist; orange, green, dark purple and blue).

History: Hikari remembers nothing of her past. She only remembers running from someone and falling into darkness. She is washed ashore along with another girl named Kairi. Kairi is adopted by the mayor while Hikari is adopted by Riku's family. Close to ten years later, Hikari has become so close to Sora, Riku and Kairi, that the four of them are inseparable. One day, Riku proposes to build a raft in order to sail to other worlds. The quartet begins to construct the raft, not knowing they'll get more than what they bargained for.


	2. Preparing For The Long Journey

My Pov

 _Where... am... I? What is this place._

 _"_ You _must hurry. The time is drawing near."_ _What?_

 _"Who are you? Where are you?" I said, looking around for the source of the voice._

 _"Darkness is destroying everything. You must fight it and protect the light." Darkness? Light?_

 _"What are you talking about? What darkness and what light?" I demanded, frighten by what it was saying._

 _"You must fight the darkness, or you will lose everything you care for." What!? I saw a light off in the distance. As I got closer, it got brighter. I shielded my eyes from it as it engulfed me. I found myself standing on some kind of platform. I looked and saw it was me! That's when my shadow grew and came out of the floor. It transformed into a terrifying monster. That's when I felt myself sinking. I looked down to see that my own shadow was swallowing me. As sank into the darkness, I heard a different voice calling me._

 _"...kari? Hikari!"_ I opened my eyes and saw I was on the Play Island of the Destiny Islands. I looked up and saw Kairi hovering over me. Next to her was her partner, Labramon.

"Hi, Kairi." I said sheepishly. Salamon snapped awake and wagged her tail.

"Hi Hikari! Hi Kairi! Hi Labramon!" Eve said. She jumped in my arms.

"Hi Salamon." I said.

"You two slept for nearly an hour!" Labramon said.

"Geez, Hikari. You're as lazy as Sora." she said, only pretending to sound slightly annoyed.

"I am not!" I looked to see Sora, next to him was his partner, Veemon. "I told you Kairi, this huge black thing swallowed me up! I don't even know what that place was... It was so bizarre..." he said.

"That's right! The monster was huge!" Veemon exclaimed.

"You were having the same dream too?" I asked him.

"You were there too? I didn't see you." Sora said.

"Sure." said Kairi, not believing us.

"It's true!" Sora exclaimed. I got up and dusted the sand off my skirt. "Say, Kairi, Hikari, what were you're hometowns like? You know, where you grew up." Sora always asked us that. And we always came the same answer.

"We've told you guys before, we don't remember." Kairi said to him.

"Nothing at all?" asked Sora.

"No." I said.

"Do you ever think of wanting to go back?" he asked.

"Well, I'm happy here. But you know... I wouldn't mind going to see it." Kairi told him.

"I'm the same as Kairi. I love it here, but I wouldn't mind going to see my old home." I said, agree with my friend.

"I'd like to see them too. Along with any other worlds out there. I wanna see 'em all!" he said, determination in his voice.

"What are we waiting for?" she asked, excitement beaming in her voice.

"Aren't you guys forgetting about-" I was cut of by the voice of Riku.

"Me?" We all turned around to see Riku carrying a log. Next to him was his partner, Kudamon. "So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft." He threw the log at Sora, who fell over. "And you're just as lazy as they are." That's when he looked at me.

"So you've noticed." she said, giggling. That's when he looked at me.

"Hikari, I'm disappointed in you. You were helping out at first, then you just up and ditch your work." he said, trying to scold me.

"I didn't ditch!" I said, yelling a little bit. "I just need to take some time and clear my mind. A lot of things have been going through my head since we're almost done."

"Emphasis on 'almost'." he said.

"Okay, let's finish it together. I'll race you!" Kairi said. Both of the boys looked at her weird for a quick second. "Ready? Go!" Sora and Riku ran ahead of us. I ran after them and Kairi followed me. Our Digimon all ran after us. Kairi was laughing and so was I. This is what I always hoped for. That the four of us would be together forever. After completing a day's work, we met up at the Paopu Tree.

"So, Kairi and Hikari's homes are out there somewhere, right?" Sora asked.

"Could be. We'll never know by staying here." said Riku.

"I wonder what their homes are like?" Veemon asked.

"We'll know when we sent sail." Kudamon said.

"But how far can a raft take us?" Sora asked him.

"Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else." Riku said.

"So, suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?" Kairi asked him.

"Yes. What would you do in a new world once you've arrived?" Labramon asked.

"Well, I haven't really thought about it." he said, sounding a little embarrassed.

"You thought about building a raft to sent sail to another world and you haven't thought about what you'd do when you get to one?" I said, with a slight mocking tone.

"Kinda strange if you ask me." Salamon said. Riku laughed a little.

"Silly, I know. It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why'd we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up anywhere else, right?"

"I don't know." Sora said, not really caring about the question.

"Exactly. That's why we need to go out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing." Riku told us.

"Yeah. We always do the same stuff, day in and day out." I said.

"My point exactly. So let's go." he said.

"You've been thinking a lot about this, haven't you Riku?" Kairi asked.

"Thanks to you two. If you and Hikari hadn't come to the island, I probably would've never thought of any of this. Hikari, Kairi, thanks." he said, thanking us.

"You're welcome." said Kairi.

"Happy to help." I said with a smile on my face. We all headed back to our boats and paddled for home. I got back first, then Kairi, then Riku and Sora. "What took you so long? You and Kudamon are usually the first ones back."

"Sorry. I had to tease Sora." he told me. Riku always teased Sora and nine times out of ten it was Kairi-related. It was funny to watch. I heard Salamon and Kudamon chuckled.

"What'd you do this time?" I asked.

"Gave him a Paopu Fruit." he said. I sighed heavily. I hated it when people made fun of the legend of the Paopu Fruit.

"Riku, you shouldn't joke about that. I hope one day when I met someone special, that we share a Paopu Fruit and our destinies will be bound together. Wouldn't you?" I asked with a sweet, innocent look on my face.

"There's... no one who interest me." he said, not looking at me. "What about you?"

"Yeah. There's someone." I said, shyly. He looked at me, shocked.

"Really? Who?" he asked.

"I'm not telling!" I teased. I picked up Salamon and ran back home. I kicked off my shoes, ran into my room and locked my door. Riku had been and older brother to me ever since I came to live with him and his family and would want to make sure any guy I liked was worthy. But I could never tell him that the guy I like... is him.


	3. Newfound Love

My Pov

Tomorrow was the big day. Today, Sora and I were collecting provisions we'd need. Sora was to find four Seagull Eggs and four Coconuts. I needed to fill four bottles full of Drinking Water and find four Mushrooms. Riku had already caught the four Fish we needed. I filled up the bottles and found three of the four Mushrooms needed. I knew I'd find the last one in the Secret Place. I crawled through the opening and walked through the tunnel. I found the last Mushroom, but didn't leave right away.

"Hikari?" Salamon asked.

"I want to see the drawing one more times." I said. It was a picture of me and Riku's faces. I remember when he had taken me in there.

Flashback[Eight and half years]

 _Riku took me somewhere special today. It was the 'Secret Place' he and Sora had. It was amazing! You wouldn't think to look at it, but it was actually a large cavern-like place on the inside. Eve was amazed by the largest of the cave._

 _"Wow! This place is so neat Riku!" I said, excited._

 _"Vee!" Riku got flustered since the place made my voice echo. His Eevee placed a paw on Eve's mouth._

 _"Hikari, shh!" he said, panicked. I looked at him confused. "No one, except me and Sora have ever been in here! I brought you in here because you're special." he told me. I blushed a little._

 _"Well, thank you for thinking I'm special enough to bring in here." I said, flattered. We both sat down in a spot and started drawing on the wall. Riku drew a picture of me and Nyaromon while I drew a picture of him and Kyaromon. We both observed the other's drawing._

 _"Don't tell Sora I brought you in here." Riku pleaded._

 _"Well, I think you'd be even since he's brought Kairi in here already." I told him, pointing to the opposite wall to the drawings of Kairi and Sora. Riku and me both smiled at the picture._

 _"You're right."_

End of Flashback

I walked over to the wall, but I saw Riku sitting down and doing something. Kudamon was perched on his shoulder. I could hear the crackling sound of a rock hitting the surface of the wall. I quietly walked up from behind him to see what he was doing. I must have shift the ground too much, because Riku snapped his head and looked at me.

"Hikari! What... uhh... what are you doing in here?" he asked, flustered. He was blocking the wall that our drawings were on.

"I wanted to look at our drawings one more time. Once we sent sail, who knows when I'll be able to look at them again." I told him. I gently pushed him out of the way and knelt down. I saw what Riku had been doing. He had drawn a hand, leading from my drawing of him to his drawing of me, and it was holding a Paopu Fruit. I looked at Riku, slightly shocked. "Riku... why did...?" I didn't know what to think.

"I lied when I said no one interested me. I was afraid that if I said there was a person I liked and it was you, you would've thought I was a creep or something." he said, blushing. I simply smiled at him and picked up a sharp rock.

"Well, I kinda lied too. I actually came here to do something before we left." I told him. I did the exact thing Riku had done. I drew a hand from my head, led it to Riku's head and drew it holding a Paopu Fruit.

"Hikari..." I lifted myself up off the ground.

"I feel the same way." Riku grabbed me and pulled into tight hug. I wrapped my arms around his waist. "I love you Riku. I always have." I said with sincerity in my voice.

"I love you too." he said. He pulled a small white box the was tied with a sky blue ribbon out of his pocket. "I got this for you. You know, since we've been so busy that we didn't really celebrate your birthday yesterday." I took the small box and opened it. Inside was a hair clip with three silver hearts. Riku took it out of the box. "Here." He took the strand of my hair that always got in my face and pinned it back with the hair clip. "Beautiful..."

"It is lovely Riku. Thank you." I said, smiling.

"I wasn't talking about the hair clip." he said. I blushed as he brought his face closer to mine. It seemed like an eternity until our lips touched. The kiss was soft and gentle. The kiss lasted for about a minute when we had to break for air. My face was completely red at this point. Kudamon and Salamon were both blushing and staring at us. "Hikari, can you promise me something?"

"Anything." I said, still feeling a little light-headed from the kiss.

"Promise that even if you find your home, you'll never forget us." he said, almost begging. I looked at him funny.

"Riku, even if I found my home, I wouldn't stay there. I happy here with you, Mom, Dad, Sora and Kairi. Sure I'd want to go and visit it now and again, but the islands are my home now." I said. He smiled at me.

"That's good to know. Get your share of the supplies to Kairi once you got everything." He said as he and Eevee walked out of the Secret Place. Suddenly, I felt there was someone behind me. I turned to see someone wearing a cloak that covered their entire body, including their face. Slamon started growling and hissing. She's never done that before.

 _"I've some to see the door to this world."_

"What? Who are you?" I asked.

 _"This world is connected. Tied to the darkness... soon to be completely eclipsed."_

"What are you talking about?" That's when I realized something. "Where did you come from? How did you get in here?" I was freaking out.

 _"You do not yet know what lies beyond the door."_

"Are you from a different world?!"

 _"There is so much to learn. You understand so little."_

"Really? You just watch. Me and my friends are gonna go out and learn about all of the other worlds that are out there!" Now I was getting ticked off.

 _"One who knows nothing can understand nothing."_ I heard a small noise behind me. I turned to see nothing then turned back to see the cloaked figure had disappeared. I wondered who that was, but decided to ignore it. I went to the Cove to where Kairi was. She was leaning up against the beam doing something. Labramon was sitting next to her. Labramon saw Salamon and the two started chasing each other.

"Can't catch me, Labramon!" Salamon teased.

"Yes I will!" Labramon said.

"Hey Kai. What'cha doing? I asked her.

"This? I'm making a necklace from thalassa shells. In the old days, sailors always wore thalassa shells. They were supposed to ensure a safe voyage. See this?" She held up the half finished necklace. "It's a charm to help us find each other if we ever get separated. The four of us will always be together." she explained. I smiled at Kairi. I didn't know why, but I felt as though me and Kairi had a relation to each other. Riku and Sora had told us there was some resemblance, but not enough to where we'd be sisters. Once the sun started going down, we headed home. I placed all of our Digimon's food down. Me and Riku sat down for dinner, but something was off. Mom and Dad were acting all secretive.

"Mom? Dad? Is something wrong?" I asked, a little worried.

"Nothing's wrong. What makes you think that?" Mom said, trying not to seem suspect.

"Mom, we both know when something's bothering you and Dad." Riku pointed out.

"Well, Hikari. Did you ever have anything with you that might be a clue where you came from?" Dad asked. I thought about it and shook my head.

"Not that I can remember." I said. Mom got up and walk into the living room. She came back and handed two necklaces in my hand. One was kinda like the thalassa shell charm Kairi had, but not exactly. It was made of off-white stained glass with a silver frame, had brown stitches, a brown cord was tied to the topmost shell and the tips were light silver. In the middle was a strange emblem. The other was some kind of pendant and inside it was a white tablet with a strange symbol in the middle. "What are they?" I asked.

"We don't know. You had it with you when you came to the islands." she says.

"Why didn't you guys show her this before?" asked Riku.

"We were going to a few days after she came to stay with us. But when we brought it up, she started getting upset and we didn't want to bother her every time we mentioned it." said Dad.

"It's okay. I can understand why you didn't show me this until now." I said. I put the strange pendant around my neck. I just felt that's where it should be. The thalassa charm I put in my pocket.

"Well, you two rest up. Tomorrow's a new day. Never know what might happen." Mom said. Riku and I looked at each other for a quick second.

'Oh, we know.' I think to myself. Riku and I headed up to our rooms and got into to bed. Salamon and Kudamon nestled into their small beds.

"Just think. Tomorrow morning we head out." Riku tells me.

"Yeah." I said, closed my eyes and dreaming of the possible worlds we were going to see.


	4. Star Key

My Pov

I woke up to the sound of a knock on my window. I opened my eyes to see Sora and Veemon. I opened the window, causing Salamon to wake up.

"What's wrong?" I yawned and rubbed one of my eyes.

"A storm is near the island! Kairi's missing and so is Riku!" he exclaimed. I looked around to see Riku wasn't here. "They probably went to make sure the raft didn't float away. Come on!" I threw my clothes on.

"Come on Salamon!" I said. We hurried and followed Sora. Once we reached the islands, I noticed two things. Riku and Kairi's boats were here and a giant sphere flashing all different colors was floating above the island. Then, some weird black creatures started coming out of the ground. Both Veemon and Salamon started growling and hissing at the creatures.

'What are those things?' I wondered to myself.

"Creatures of evil!" Veemon said.

"Creatures of darkness!" Salamon said.

"Hikari, here." Sora handed me a Toy Sword. I had always watched everyone play fight, but I'd never join into it. Although, for some reason, I was fighting off the creatures surprisingly well. Almost like I had done this before. Salamon used her Puppy Howl to fight them off. "You go look for Riku. I'll try and find Kairi." I took a quick scan and spotted Riku near the Paopu Tree. I hurried to where Riku was. He was standing still and facing toward the Main Island. Kudamon was standing next to him.

"Riku! We need to get out of here!" I yelled to him.

"The door has opened..." he simply said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"The door has opened, Hikari! Now we can go to the outside world!" What was he talking about?

"What? Riku, we need to get Sora and Kairi and get back to the Main Island!" I tell him.

"Kairi and Sora are coming with us!" He tells me. What was happening? Riku looked up to the black sphere that was hovering over the island. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!" He turned his attention back to me. He held out his hand, beckoning me to come to him.

"Riku..." Suddenly, a pool of darkness formed under Riku and started to consume him. "Riku!" I ran to him.

"Kudamon!" Salamon cried. I tried to reached for his hand, but the darkness kept me from reaching him. We were being swallowed by darkness. Why did this all seem so familiar? Then I saw a light. It got brighter and brighter until it evaporated the darkness around me. I opened my eyes and Riku was gone. I looked down at my sword to see it had changed.

 _"Keyblade... Keyblade..."_ I heard a voice say. A Keyblade? I took a closer look. It did kinda look like a key, but not quite. It was a deep, pastel blue color while the handle itself was a deep indigo. The "blade" was a light-blue metal bar with a spike and a star at the end of the bar that was the same color. A gold rainguard was at the bottom of the bar. The Keychain at the end of the handle was a gold star and it was attached to the hilt of the Keyblade with a silver chain. I didn't know why and couldn't explain it, but I felt as though I had seen this before.

"Hikari!" I heard Sora calling me over to the 'Secret Place'. I ran over to him, killing several of the black creatures. I noticed a large white door blocking the opening.

"What's this door doing here?" I asked.

"I don't know, but can you keep those things from getting in while I see if Kairi's in here?" I nodded to him. He opened the door and crawled into the 'Secret Place'.

* * *

Sora's Pov

I ran through the tunnel and saw Kairi standing by the strange door. Labramon was by her side.

"Kairi!" I called. She slowly turned around.

"Sora..." Something was wrong. Her eyes were sad and almost lifeless. She reached out for me, but then the door swung open. A huge, dark wind blasted through and pushed Kairi towards me. I reached out to grab her, but it's like she went through me. The wind pushed me out of the 'Secret Place' and back outside. Me and Eevee rolled several times until I came to a stop. I looked to see that the islands were being torn apart and everything was being absorbed into the sphere above.

"Sora!" I heard Hikari yell to me. "Did you find Kairi?!"

"I did, but she disappeared." I answered. We both turned to see the same monster I had fought in my dream. We had no choice but to fight it. When it knelt down, we would attack it's hands. After awhile, it was lifted into the air and disappeared. The wind started picking up and it was trying to pull us into the sphere. I was both holding on to a piece of wood and Hikari. Veemon was holding on to the wood too, along with holding one of Salamon's paws. The pull from the wind and the sphere became too much and our hands slipped. From both the wood and Hikari's hand and Salamon's paw.

"Veemon!" Salamon cried.

"Salamon!" Veemon cried.

"Sora!" Hikari cried out for me.

"Hikari!" I yelled for her. I tried to reach out for her again, but it was no use. They disappeared from sight and soon we were swallowed by darkness. My only thoughts were what was happening to my home and what world were the three people I cared about the most going to end up?

* * *

My Pov

 _Where... am... I...? What is this? Am I being eaten away by the darkness?_

 _"You can't let yourself be beaten by darkness that easily, Hikari. You're stronger than this." said one voice. Huh? Who was that?_

 _"You've seen us fight the Unversed before. You should be able to beat the Heartless, no problem. They aren't that much different." said another. What?_

 _"You told us that you'd fight the darkness when you were old enough to handle your Keyblade. You swore you'd protect those precious to you and fight for the Light." another voice said._

 _"What? Who are you people? Show yourselves!" I demanded._

 _"I'm afraid we can't do that my child. It's too soon for you to see us. Especially since you don't remember us. It would only confuse you." the last voice says._

 _"Tell me who you are and I'll remember." I said. I heard them all laugh, but not in a cruel way. More like a friendly, joking way._

 _"Sorry, kiddo. It's not the time to remember us just yet." The first voice says. I saw a light. In front of the light were four silhouettes. They were only outlines so I couldn't see their faces. There were two men, a woman and a boy maybe my age from what I could make out. Something about them, about their voices felt so... familiar. I ran towards them. Like before, the light got brighter and brighter until I felt my consciousness coming back._


	5. Traverse Town

My Pov

I felt something wet on my cheek. I groggily opened my eyes to see a strange looking dog.

"This is a weird dream..." I went to close my eyes, but the dog jumped on my stomach. "This isn't a dream! It's real!" I got up off the ground and looked at my surroundings. It was almost impossible, but I was in another world! I looked back at the dog. I looked around his collar. It said 'Pluto'. "Do you know where we are, boy?" His ear perked up and he ran off. Maybe he heard something.

"Hikari!" a voice called. That was Salamon! I ran out of the alley and saw Salamon looking for me.

"Salamon!" I said. She looked and ran to me. She jumped in my arms, happy to see me.

"I'm glad we ended up in the same place!" Salamon said.

"Me too!" I said.

We started looking around the world. It turned out this world was called 'Traverse Town'. We ran into more of those black creatures from the island. We ran, both fighting the creatures and looking for Sora, Riku and Kairi. A Shadow jumped from above me. I shot a strange light from my hand and hit it, but it didn't vanish. I didn't bother with it and ran off to the next district. After looking in all three districts, we ended up back in the First District. What I saw when I got there was terrifying. A man struck Sora with his sword and a lion Digimon struck Veemon and they fell to the ground. "You monsters! What did you do to them?"

"How are you!" Salamon exclaimed.

"None of your concern. Especially since you'll be taking a nap just like your friend if you get in my way." the man said.

"What? Who are you?" I asked.

"They'll come at you from out of nowhere. And they'll keep coming as long as your friend continue to wield the Keyblade. But why? Why would it choose a kid like him?" This guy was starting to tick me even off. I summoned my Keyblade, Starlight. The man seemed surprised. "The worlds must be desperate if a Keyblade has chosen a little girl." That tears it!

"You won't be thinking that in a minute when I kick your butt!" I exclaimed. He pulled his sword out of its' sheath. It was a strange one. It had a gun attached to the bottom of it.

"All right, then have it your way. Liollmon, take care of her puppy." He said before relentlessly attacking me. This guy and his Liollmon were tough. The man was able to use some kind of fire magic.

"Lio Claw!" Liollmon said. He lunged at Salamon, ready to slash at her.

"Petty Punch!" Salamon said. She rapidly punched Liollmon, countering each of his swipes until she knocked him off guard. "Puppy Howl!" The blast sent Liollmon crashing into the ground. After managing to land several attacks, the man fell to his knees. Salamon soon passed out, exhausted.

"Now... you're... gonna... you're gonna..." I panted before falling backwards and losing consciousness, feeling more worn out than I've ever felt before.

* * *

Riku's Pov

The sound of rushing water is what made my consciousness flow back. I opened my eyes to see walls of water rushing upward. I got to my feet, only to feel pressure pushing on my body.

"Where... am I?" I looked around. I made it. I was in another world! The excitement only lasted for a second when I looked again and I didn't see Hikari, Sora or Kairi. "Hikari! Sora! Kairi!" I called. Silence. Was I the only one who made it off the island? If not, then they all must have ended up somewhere else. How was I going to find them?

* * *

Sora's Pov

Man, that guy seriously messed me up. My head was killing me! I kept opening and closing my eyes. That's when I heard a voice. It was Kairi's voice!

"Come on, lazy bum. Wake up." I opened my eyes to see it was Kairi. "You okay?"

"I guess..." I said.

"Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblade. But it's your heart they really want, because you wield the Keyblade." What was she talking about? How did she know what those things wanted? I shook it off. I noticed Veemon next to me.

"I'm so glad that you're okay, Kairi." I told her.

"Kairi? Who are you talking about?" That's when her voice changed. "I'm the great ninja Yuffie." I shook my head and saw the girl in front of me wasn't Kairi. On her shoulder was a Wormmon. "I think you might have overdone it, Squall." The guy who knocked me out walked into the room.

"That's Leon." The guy from before walked into the room. I noticed he was carrying someone. It was Hikari and Salamon!

"You! What did you do to my friend?!" I yelled. He laid her on the bed. I held Hikari in my arms and held her to where she was almost sitting.

"Nothing." he said, simply.

"It's true. She passed out after beating Leon." Yuffie explained.

"Hey!" Leon yelled. I felt Hikari stirring. I looked down to see her sapphire blue eyes halfway open.

"Hikari. Are you okay?" I asked.

"Sora..?" she asked, slightly dazed. She blinked her eyes a couple of times before jumping from my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck. "Sora! You're here! You're really here! I thought I was the only one who made it." She got out of my lap and we both turned our heads to our Keyblades.

"The Keyblade..." I said, looking at both our weapons.

"Yeah, we had to them away from you two to shake off those creatures. It turns out that's how they were tracking you." Yuffie explained.

"It was the only way to conceal your hearts from them. But it won't work for long. Especially for Hikari." He said, pointing to her.

"Why me?" she asked.

"Did you by any chance run into a lot of Heartless? By that, I mean like ten every couple of seconds?" Yuffie asked, to which Hikari nodded her head. "For some reason, your heart is very pure. It's full of light. That's why the Heartless kept attacking you." Hikari's heart was pure? "You're someone special. That's for sure."

"Still hard to believe you two of all people are chosen by the Keyblade." He said. He picked up our Keyblades, which disappeared and reappeared in our hands. "Still, beggars can't be choosers." They told us about the Heartless and told us about a man named Ansem. Then, a Heartless appeared in the room. Yuffie ran to the other room while me and Hikari followed Leon out into the alleyway.

* * *

My Pov

Sora and I fought our way through until we came to the Third District. I heard some kind of noise followed by yelling. I looked up to see two people falling towards us.

"Sora, look out!" I yelled. He looked up in my direction. We both tried to run out of the way, but whoever it was fell on top of us. I managed to get a look at the two. One looked like a dog and the other looked like a duck. They looked at Sora's Keyblade.

"The key!" They exclaimed. Then they looked at mine.

"There's two of 'em?" the dog asked. Suddenly, the ground began to shake and slabs of stone blocked all the exits. Several Solider Heartless appeared on top of each slab. It didn't take long to get rid of all of them. Then, purple and black armored body parts came out of nowhere. They assembled themselves into a giant Heartless. Sora and I attacked the hands while the duck and dog attacked the feet. That's when my Digivice and the strange pendant started glowing. Soon, Salamon was cloaked in a bright light.

 _"Salamon digivolve to... Gatomon!"_

"Salamon..." I said, shocked at what happened.

"Veemon, let's attack together!" Gatomon said.

"You got it!" Veemon said. They both charged toward the Heartless. "V-Headbutt!"

"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon exclaimed. Both of the attacks hit the torso and destroyed it. From the neck area, a heart emerged and disappeared into the sky. Gatomon reverted back to Salamon. After everything settled down, the duck and dog explained why they were in Traverse Town.

"So, you were looking for me?" Sora asked. The two nodded.

"They, too, have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade." Leon told us.

"Hey, why don't you two come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel." The dog suggested.

"I wonder if we'd be able to find Riku and Kairi..." I thought aloud.

"Of course." the duck said, although a had a feeling he wasn't sure.

"Sora, Hikari, go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends." Leon pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess." Sora said, sounding sad.

"But you two can't come along looking like that. Understand? No frowning. No sad face. Okay?" the duck said.

"Yeah, ya gotta look funny, like us!" The dog told us.

"This boat runs on happy faces." the duck said.

"Happy?" I asked, confused. Sora looked down and looked back up with the funniest face I'd ever seen. Me and the other two busted out laughing. Veemon and Salamon were laughing too.

"That's one funny face!" the dog said, laughing.

"Okay, why not? We'll go with you guys." Sora said.

"Donald Duck." the duck introduced himself.

"Name's Goofy." the dog introduced himself.

"I'm Sora." Sora introduced himself. "This is my partner, Veemon."

"Nice to meet 'cha." Veemon said.

"My name's Hikari." I introduced myself. "This is my partner, Salamon."

"Hello." Salamon said. We placed our hands on top of each others'.

"All for one and one for all." Goofy said.


	6. Wonderland

No one's Pov

 _The four new friends were unaware that they were being watched. A small projection of the Keyblade bearers and the King's friends appeared._

 _"Those little squirts took down that Heartless! Who'd have thought it?" one said._

 _"Such is the power of the Keyblade. The children's strength is not there own." another said._

 _"Why don't we turn them both into Heartless? That'll settle things quick enough." a third said._

 _"And the brats' friends are the King's lackeys. Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them." a fourth said._

 _"You're no prize yourself." the last one said, mocking the fourth._

 _"Shut up!" the fourth one snapped._

 _"Enough." All five of these villains turn their heads to their leader. "The Keyblade has chosen him. Will it be he who conquers the darkness? Or will the darkness swallow him? There's also the matter with the girl. The Heartless swarmed after her heart more than any they have before. Question is: Who is she?"_

* * *

My Pov

I was so beautiful in space. I wished Riku and Kairi could see this. They would both be fascinated by it. Salamon was, as her tail was wagging a lot. Veemon was also excited by the beautiful scenery.

"Wow..." Salamon mumbled.

"It's amazing..." Veemon mumbled. Donald and Goofy told us that they were looking for their King. So we all had someone we were looking for.

"We're coming up on the first world." Donald informed us. I looked out the window and saw it. It was a strange-looking world. As soon as we landed, we started falling down a rabbit hole. This wasn't any ordinary rabbit hole though. It was full on clocks that looked like they were either painted on the wall or floating in midair. As we neared the bottom, I saw a couch, two flower beds and a table that were flat and in the floor somehow. We landed softly onto the ground. The a strange rabbit ran past us.

"Oh, my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" What was he late for? "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The queen, she'll have my head for sure!" the rabbit exclaimed. We followed the rabbit to a door. Sora opened it to reveal another and then another. We each crawled through the small and came to a bizarre room. Everything in the room looked like it was painted on the ground. That's when we saw the rabbit running across the floor. How'd he get so small? He ran through a small door, which closed after he was through. I noticed the bed was the only thing sticking out, so I pushed it to reveal another small passage. The I turned my attention to the small door.

"How did he get so small?" Sora asked and he was answered by an unexpected person.

"No, you're simply too big." the doorknob had answered us. We all jumped a little. Salamon and Veemon jumped and hid behind me and Sora.

"It talks!" Donald exclaimed.

"Must you be so loud? You woke me up." the doorknob complained.

"Good morning." greeted Goofy.

"Good night! I need a bit more sleep." the doorknob snapped.

"Please wait! What do me and my friends have to do to get small?" I asked, pleading.

"Why don't you try the bottle... over there?" the doorknob suggested. I turned around to see the table pop out of the floor and on it were two bottles. Sora picked up one with a blue label and drank from it. He shrunk down to the size of Tom Thumb. Veemon lifted Sora on to his head.

"You look really cute at this size Sora." I said, giggling.

"Hurry, we need to catch that rabbit." he told us. All of us drank from the same bottle and shrunk down to Sora's new size. We went through the passage that had been behind the bed and found ourselves in the a strange place. It looked like something was happening. I saw a girl with blonde hair and a blue dress standing in a podium and a woman sitting in a larger podium, overseeing everything.

"What's happening?" I asked, whispering.

"I don't know..." Goofy said.

"Quiet!" Donald said in a quite voice. The white rabbit ran to a stand and blew his trumpet.

"Court is now in session!" The rabbit proclaimed.

"I'm on trial? But why?" the girl asked, sounding confused.

"Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!" the rabbit proclaimed.

"This girl is the culprit. There's no doubt about it. And the reason is... because I say so, that's why!" the queen snapped. That's not a good enough reason to accuse someone.

"That is so unfair!" the girl exclaimed.

"Well, have you anything to say in your defense?" the queen asked, snobbishly.

"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong! You may be queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so... so mean!" the girl said. Wow! She's really cool the way she gives that queen a piece of her mind.

"Silence! You dare defy me?" the queen snapped. Salamon hid behind me, scared of the Queen's outburst.

"She's scaring..." Salamon whispered.

"Hey, guys, we should help her out." Sora suggested.

"Yeah. This is clearly and rigged and unfair trial. I believe that girl hasn't done anything." I said, feeling my anger starting to rise.

"Yeah, but the-" Donald objected.

"We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be 'muddling'?" Goofy asked.

"Meddling!" Donald corrected.

"Oh, yeah. And that's against the rules." Goofy told us.

"The court finds the defendant... guilty as charged! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart..." Wait, heart?! This girl was innocent! "Off with her head!" the queen proclaimed.

"No! No! Oh, please!" the girl pleaded.

"Hold it right there!" Sora yelled. We all ran past the guards and close to where the girl was.

"Who are you? How dare you interfere with my court?" the queen demanded.

"Your Majesty, I apologize, but this girl is innocent. We know who the real thief is!" I said.

"Uh-huh. It's the Heartle-" Goofy covered his mouth. I guess telling her outright that it's the Heartless isn't allowed either.

"Anyway, she's not the one you're looking for." Sora explained.

"That's nonsense. Have you any proof?" the queen asked. No we didn't. The girl, who had been revealed to be Alice, was locked in a cage. "Bring me proof of Alice's innocence! Fail, and it's off with all of your heads!" she said with an angry tone. Oh, great. How were we going prove Alice was innocent? Alice had told me that the Cheshire Cat may know of a way. So, we went into the forest to try and find him.


	7. Ice Magic

My Pov

We enter the Lotus Forest looking for the Cheshire Cat. We looked around, but didn't see him. That is until a grinning, floating cat head appeared in front of my face. I screamed and fell on my back. Salamon screamed and hid behind me. The cat's head appeared on a tree stump, along with its body standing on it. The body jumped off the head, picked up the head and placed it on its neck.

"Who are you?" Donald asked.

"Who indeed? Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing!" said the cat.

"Hey, if you know who the culprit is, tell us!" Sora exclaimed.

"You said it yourself; Alice's is guilty of nothing." I pointed out.

"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers- but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit , the cat all lie in darkness." he said. Then he vanished. What the hell was all of that suppose to mean?!

"Wait!" Sora yelled.

"They've already left the forest. I won't say which exit. There are four pieces of evidence in all. Three are a cinch to find. The fourth is tricky. Big reward if you find them all." he said.

"Should we trust him?" Donald asked. The cat reappeared briefly.

"To trust, or not to trust? I trust you to decide!" he exclaims. We looked throughout the entire world. With Veemon and Salamon's help, we found footprints, stench and an antennae. Now we just need to find one more. That involved going back to the Bizarre Room, but at a different angle. We went through a different passage and ended up on top of a faucet. That's when I saw the last piece of evidence; claw marks. The Cheshire Cat reappeared. "Well, look what you've found. Nice going." he said.

"Now we can save Alice." Sora said.

"Don't be so sure! She may be innocent, but what about you?" the cat asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked, wondering what he meant.

"I won't tell you, but I'll give you something." he says, pointing at our Keyblades. Me and Sora were able to use both the Fire and Blizzard Spell now. We hurried back

"Now, show me what you have found." the queen demanded. Sora and I placed the four boxes in front of her. "Well, that's certainly a lot of evidence, but I'm still not impressed." she said, snobbishly. Oh, come on! "Cards! Bring forth my evidence!" she demanded. An Ace of Heart Card place one box next to one of ours. The boxes shuffled. "Hmm, checking all five would be a waste of time. Al right, then. Choose the one you wish to present. I'll decide who's guilty based on that evidence."

"What? After all that trouble collecting it?" Sora complained.

"You dare object? Then you will lose your head! Now, choose! One box!" the queen snapped.

"Don't worry, Sora. I'll do it." I tell him. I walked to the boxes and chose the second from the left. A Solider Heartless appeared and then disappeared.

"What in the world was that?" the queen asked.

"That was the real culprit. Alice is innocent." I explain.

"Silence! I'm the law here! Article 29: Anyone who defies the Queen is guilty!" the queen angrily proclaimed.

"That's crazy!" Donald yelled.

"Seize them at once!" the queen yelled. The whole area changed. A small tower was they only thing that stood out and it was connected to the cage Alice was being held in. The Cards flew everywhere and began attacking us. At a time, Sora, Donald, Goofy and me would attack the tower.

"V-Headbutt!" Veemon exclaimed.

"Puppy Howl!" Salamon exclaimed. Veemon rammed into the tower while Salamon's howl hit it. Finally, it was destroyed, bring the cage all the way down. The curtain rolled around to reveal Alice was gone.

"She must have gotten kidnapped while we were fighting." Donald said.

"You fools! Find the one who's behind this! I don't care how!" the queen yelled. The cards scrambled into different directions. We went back into the forest to look for Alice, but found the Cheshire Cat instead.

"Have you seen Alice?" Donald asked.

"Alice, no. Shadows, yes!" said the cat.

"Where did they go?" Goofy asked.

"This way? That way? Does it matter? Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows! Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside-down room!" he told us.

"Well, let's hurry. Who knows how long the 'shadows' are going to stick around." I said. We did as the cat said and later lit the lanterns in both the versions of the Bizarre Room. Soon, the entire room was lit. the Cheshire Cat appeared on the table.

"You'd have better view from up here." he said. We climbed up onto the table. "The shadows should be here soon. Are you prepared for the worst? If not, that's too bad!" he exclaimed. A giant Heartless landed on the floor. It was red and black and its hands sounded like paper crackling when it moved them. It also was able to use Fire magic. This was an unfair fight. We were ants compared to this one. That's when I remembered; me and Sora could use Ice magic. I only glance at him and realized he was thinking the same thing. We raise our Keyblades at the Heartless and shouted:

"Freeze!" A small blue light shot from each of our Keyblades, hit the Heartless and froze it. The ice began to crack. It didn't work? But, the Heartless fell apart and a heart was released from it. I heard the Doorknob yawn.

"What a racket. How's a doorknob to get any sleep?" the doorknob complained. He yawned again and a keyhole's silhouette shone in his mouth. Then, me and Sora's Keyblades began to shine too. They forced our hands to point forward. Small beams of light emitted from them and went toward the Keyhole. There was a defiant locking sound and the light faded.

"What was that?" Donald asked.

"You hear that? Sounded like something closed." Sora said.

"The Keyhole was locked and now this world is safe..." I said, I realized what I said and wondered why I said it.

"What?" Sora asked, looking at me funny.

"Oh, nothing!" I said, flustered. I didn't understand where that had come from. That when a strange colored block fell from the Doorknob. Salamon sniffed it before picking it up and handing it to Donald.

"This gummi ain't like the others. No, sir." Goofy said.

"Okay. I'll hold on to it." Donald said.

"Splendid. You're quiet the hero and heroine." We turned to see the Cheshire Cat. "If you're looking for Alice, she's not here. She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness." he said, disappearing once more.

"No..." I said, feeling like we failed to help someone when they needed it.

"Let's get back to our gummi ship. We might find her in another world." Donald said.

"We gotta go to the entry point to return to our ship." Goofy explained.


	8. Olympus Coliseum

My Pov

I felt so whipped from that last battle. I could barely keep my eyes open.

"Hikari, why don't you take a rest in the lower deck? It may not seem like it, but there's a room in the lower deck." Goofy suggested.

"You should. If you aren't well rested, you won't be able to fight." Donald pointed out.

"Go ahead Hikari. We'll wake you up when we reach our next destination." Sora told me. I was too tired to argue. I climbed down the latter into the spare room, carrying my equally tired Digimon. I laid down on the bed with Salamon in my arms and fell asleep within seconds.

* * *

Riku's Pov

I managed to track Sora and Hikari down. I used the Dark Corridor to teleport myself into the lower deck of the ship. I heard light breathing and saw Hikari, peacefully sleeping. I saw Salamon was in her arms, sleeping.

'She's alright." I thought, relieved. Kudamon was about to run up to Salamon, but I grabbed him.

"Riku?" Kudamon asked, confused.

"We can't let them know we're here." I said. I had worried that she was lost or hurt. But she was safe. I walked over to her and just stared at her. I wanted to wake her up, show her I was alright, but I could tell she must have battle a strong Heartless. It was better to let her sleep. I gently push a stray strand of her hair from her face. She moved slightly and moaned a little.

"Riku..." I heard her mumble. I stepped back, afraid she might awake up, but realized she was only dreaming. I laughed a little. Even when we were little, she'd always talk in her sleep.

"I'm sorry I can't stay Hikari, but I promise I'll see you soon." I said, sadly. I kissed her cheek. Kudamon pecked Salamon's cheek. We then left through the Dark Corridor.

* * *

My Pov

 _"I'm sorry I can't stay Hikari, but I promise I'll see you soon."_ I felt a small amount of pressure on my cheek. I snapped my eyes open and sat up.

"Riku?" I asked, looking around, but I didn't see him. Was it just a dream? Salamon looked around for Kudamon. I heard him too.

"Hikari! We're coming up on another world!" Sora yelled to me. I got out of bed and we joined the others back in the control deck. The world was a floating coliseum. We entered the lobby and saw a short satyr(a half man, half goat)busily looking at the 'Rules' board. "Um..."

"Good timing. Give me a hand, would ya? Move that pedestal over there for me. I gotta spruce this place up for the games." the satyr said, without looking at us. I look over to the pedestal. Both me and Sora pushed on it, but it wouldn't budge. Salamon and Veemon tried to help, but no luck.

"This thing has to weigh a ton!" I exclaimed. We stopped pushing and went back over to the satyr.

"It's way too heavy!" Sora exclaimed.

"What? Too heavy? Since when have you been such a little-" The satyr turned around and looked at me and Sora. "Oh. Wrong guy. What're you doing here? This here is the world-famous Coliseum- heroes only! And I got my hands full preparing for the games. So run along, pip-squeaks." he said. Sora gave him a stern look "Look it's like this. Heroes are coming for all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum." he explained to us.

"You've got heroes standing right in front of you." Donald said proudly.

"Yup. Sora and Hikari are real heroes chosen by the Keyblade!" Goofy said.

"And we're heroes, too." Donald said.

"Heroes? Those runts?" He said, laughing. I didn't think I was much of a heroine, but I knew Sora was a hero.

"What's so funny? I've fought a bunch of monsters!" Sora snapped.

"Hey, if you can't even move this..." The satyr began to push on the pedestal. "You can't call yourself..." He pushed even harder, but still couldn't budge it. "A hero!" He fell to the ground, worn out from pushing the pedestal. "Okay, so it takes more than brawn. Well, well, let's see what you two can do." So, me and Sora were put on a test trail and we both did very well. "You know, you kids ain't half bad." he said.

"Looks like we're headed for the games Hikari." Sora said to me with a smile.

"Afraid not." the satyr told us.

"What? Why not?" I asked.

"Two words: 'You guys ain't heroes.'" he said. That was more then two words. The satyr told us without an entry pass, we're getting no where near the games. We decided with nothing left to do, to leave for another world.

"Rather a stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?" A tall man with blue skin, a long black robe and blue flames which I guessed were actually his hair seemed to appear from the shadows.

"Who are you?" Donald asked. Something about this guy scared me. He looked familiar, but the memory was all hazy and fuzzy. Both Veemon and Salamon started growling and hissing at him. I took that as a sign this guy was bad news.

"Whoa, hold it there, fuzz boy. Wait, let me guess. You want to enter the games, right?" he asked. He came around and behind Sora. "Well, then, get a load of this." He held out his hand and a pass appeared.

"A pass?" Sora asked him.

"It's all yours. Good luck, kid. I'm pulling for you and your friend, little shorty." He said, walking away. I felt like this was some kind of trap. Something about him was familiar and it wasn't a good thing. We went back to the lobby and presented the pass to satyr.

"Hey, how'd you get this?" he asked us.

"Can we enter the games now?" Sora asked, rearing to go.

"Well... I guess so. We start with the preliminaries. However, you can't use your little pets." he said. Salamon and Veemon stayed back. We headed to the arena, ready to take on any challenge thrown our way. The satyr, we later found out to be named Phil, gave me and Sora the spell Thunder. We blew through the preliminaries with no problem.

"You're no heroes yet, but you ain't doing bad. Lucky you came to me for coaching." he said proudly. Yeah. 'Lucky'. That's when a strange guy walked past us. He stared at all of us and we all looked at him. "Something tells me he'll be a tough one to beat. Who knows, maybe you'll end up facing him." After we blew through the second match easy. "Say, you two are better than I thought! Wish he was here to see this."

"Who?" I asked.

"Hercules. He's a hero if there ever was one. Too bad he's off visiting his father." he told. After going through three rounds, we went back over to Phil.

* * *

 **In case you're all wondering what Hikari would sound like if she were an actual game character; her ENG voice actor would be Sherry Lynn and her JAP voice actor would be Chisa Yokoyama. She sounds the same as Tsunami from Tenchi Muyo.**


	9. The Three-Headed Hound

?'s Pov

I watched in secret as the four blew through their enemies like they were nothing. And that girl... What interest did Hades have in her anyway? My partner, Dracomon, was watching the girl.

"Something's different about that girl, Cloud..." Dracomon said. Hades came to me.

"That little punk and girl are you're next opponents, okay? Now, don't blow it. Just take them out." Hades said.

"The great god of the Underworld is afraid of two kids? Sorry, but my contract says-" I begin to say, but Hades cuts me off.

"I know! You think I don't know? I wrote the contract!" "I know it says you're only required to kill Hercules in this tournament. But you've gotta fight those two to get to him. Come on." I looked over at the two talking to the satyr. "Hey, it's like that old goat says: 'Rule 11: It's all just a game, so let loose and have fun with it!' I mean, a causality or two along the way is no big deal, right?" he says. I headed toward the arena to face these so-called Keyblade bearers.

* * *

Hades's Pov

Man, that Cloud guy gave me chills.

"Geez. Stiffer than the stiffs back home. Still, suckers like him are hard to come by..." I whistled for Cerberus. "Alright, Cerberus, I need you to take out Cloud and everyone else. Except the girl. Maleficent says that that girl is special for some reason. Leave her unharmed." I explain, to which he understands.

* * *

My Pov

The next match was relatively easy. Finally, we reached the last match. And it was against the strange guy we had seen earlier. Cloud. This guy was tough. He was different from the two Boss Heartless that me and Sora had faced before. He knocked Donald and Goofy down and was about to strike Sora down. I hurried in front of him and blocked Cloud's attack with my Keyblade.

"Don't you dare hurt Sora! He's one of my most precious friends if you or anyone does anything to hurt him, I'll make you pay!" I yell. I pushed him back and pointed my Keyblade at him. "Water!" A powerful spout of water shot from the tip and pushed Cloud into a pillar that was around the arena. I had just learned a new spell.

"Whoa..." Sora said, bewildered by what I just did. I blushed a little and rubbed the back of my head in shyness. We had beaten Cloud and won. It was done. That is until a giant, black paw slammed down onto Cloud. The paw belonged to a giant, three-headed hellhound with black smog coming from two of its three mouths. I turned to run of the exit to see the guy who had given Sora the pass. He disappeared into the darkness.

"Hikari, look out!" Donald shouted to me. All three of the hellhounds' heads lunged for me. One of the heads grazed my arm. I gripped it and saw I was bleeding a little. Then, all three attacked me again. All I could do was close my eyes and wait for the pain of a thousand teeth tearing my flesh apart. But it didn't. In front of me was a guy would was actually holding the beast back.

"Herc!" Phil cried. Herc? Oh, this guy must be Hercules.

"Phil, get them outta here!" He yelled. We all ran back into the lobby. Phil handed me some bandages and Sora fixed up my arm.

"Whew, that was close! That was Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld. Herc should be able to handle him. But the again, maybe not... This doesn't look good." Phil said, trembling from fear. We had to help. We ran back into the Coliseum. Hercules was backed into a corner with an unconscious Cloud over his shoulder. Cerberus perked up his ears and turned to see us ready to fight him. Herc ran back to the lobby. "Kids, I got two words of advice for you: Attack!" Again, more than two words. This was not easy at all. Cerberus was either snapping at us, shooting giant fireballs from his mouths or causing spouts of dark energy to come out of the ground. I had to do something, but what?

 _"Use it."_ What? _"Use the technique that I taught her. You can do it Hikari."_ Who was that? That voice... It wasn't one of the ones I had heard before, but it felt familiar somehow. _"Focus on your light and let it explode."_ I focused real hard and felt it. My light was growing and it felt amazing. That's when I saw a flash. A young girl with blue hair and eyes was spinning and streams of light came from her. Then, a name popped in my head.

"Lightbloom!" I yelled. My body seemed to moved on its own as it became cloaked in light. First, I went into Camel spin, then a Sit spin and finally, after several spins in that position, I shifted into a Biellmann spin. All the while, I released volleys of energy at Cerberus. Soon, it became too much for the hellhound and he collapsed. I stopped spinning only to find I couldn't stand straight. I felt my foot slip and I would've hit the ground if Sora hadn't caught me.

"Hikari, are you okay?" He asked, worried. I just laughed.

"Besides the fact I can't walk, I'm peachy." I said jokingly. Sora helped me walk back to the lobby. Phil and Hercules both stood in front of us.

"Thus, I hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games. Further-" Donald cut Phil off.

"Hey! What do you mean by 'junior heroes'?" Donald asked, sounding angry and a little offended.

"You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero." Phil told us.

"So, what does it take?" Goofy asked.

"Well, that's just something you'll have to find out for yourselves. Just the way I did." Hercules told us.

"No problem. We'll start by proving ourselves in the games." Sora said with confidence.

"There ain't gonna be any games for a while. Gotta clean up the mess from that last battle first." Phil explains.

"Okay, we'll be back." Sora says. I looked back over at the pedestal. I felt I like we should give it another try.

"Sora, wait. Let's try moving the pedestal again." I said. He agreed. This time was different. Both Donald and Goofy helped push too and the pedestal moved easily. Underneath it was the Olympic Coliseum's Keyhole. Me and Sora pointed our Keyblades at it and sealed it. Sora, Donald and Goofy left the lobby. I went to follow when Phil stopped me.

"Hey kid. You're a true hero." Phil tells me.

"What makes you say that?" I asked, confused.

"You're just like the boy you came here with ten years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long." Hercules said. Huh? I've been here before? And what boy?

"What are you talking about?" I asked, now completely confused.

"You came here with a different boy and his Jolteon kinda like that other friend of yours. How's he doing, by the way?" Phil asked. What were they talking about?

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you guys are talking about. If I came here before I was six, then I don't remember. All I can remember is running from someone and falling in darkness. Anything else before that is all hazy." I explained to them. They both seemed surprised. I left and followed Sora back to the gummi ship. While we headed to the next world, all that was on my mind was what Hercules and Phil said. Had I been to the Coliseum before? And who was the boy they said I had been with? I looked at Salamon

"Salamon, do you remember going to the Coliseum before now?" I asked. She tilted her head to a side.

"I don't think so?" Salamon said. I guess not.

* * *

 **In case any of you want to know what Hikari's battle stance is, it's similar to Ven's.**


	10. Deep Jungle

My Pov

It was awhile before we arrived at the next world. It looked like a jungle-like place.

"Hey, Donald, maybe King Mickey's down there." Goofy suggested.

"In a backwater place like that? No way! Let's move on." Donald said.

"Hold on. Riku and Kairi might be down there. Let's check it out." Sora said. Hope began to fill my heart.

"Forget it! We're on an important mission!" Donald said. And just like that, it dropped.

"Donald, please just land!" I pleaded.

"No!" Donald said.

"Come on!" Sora insisted.

"Aw, phooey!" Donald complained.

"We're landing!" Sora exclaimed. Sora grabbed the main control and started to twisted it while Donald pull it.

"Don't touch that! Nooo!" Donald yelled. The gummi ship spiraled out of control and hurled toward the jungle world.

* * *

Sora's Pov

I fell toward a house that set on a platform in a large tree. I gripped Veemon close, hoping to cushion the impact at least for them. Well, I actually went straight through the roof. I crashed through and landed hard. I sat up after I snapped out of my daze.

"Oww...my head..." I looked around, but I didn't see Donald, Goofy or Hikari. "Donald? Goofy? Hikari?" I called.

"Sora!" Veemon exclaimed.

"I'm okay Veemon." I said. I heard the sound of wood creaking and looked up. It was a leopard. It jumped from the balcony and slashed at me. I jumped back, but too much to where I slammed into a wall. I stood back up and prepared to fight the leopard. Veemon tried to help, but he mainly were focused on dodging it. I managed to jump out of its way and hit it enough to where it collapsed. I slowly crept up to see if I had killed it. The leopard jolted up and snarled at me. It lunged for me and I held my Keyblade up to defend myself. I waited for the big cat's teeth to clamp onto my arm, but felt nothing. Instead, I opened my eyes to see a man in a loincloth blocking the leopard with a spear. He pushed the leopard away and it jumped out of a window.

"Sabor, danger." the man said. Sabor? He must mean the leopard.

"Um... Thank you." I said.

"Thank you." the man repeated. Why was he saying thank you?

"Huh? Uh, what is this place?" I asked.

"This place, this place." the man echoed. Why was he repeating what I said? Then I heard someone calling out for me.

"Sora? Veemon? Donald? Goofy" a voice called. I happen to catch a glimpse of someone walking by the balcony. Wait, that's-

"Hikari! I called.

"Salamon!" Veemon called. They came running back and saw us.

"Sora!" Hikari exclaimed. She and Salamon jumped down, but Hikari stumbled a little and tripped. I ran and caught her. "Owww..."

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"When we crashed and got separated, I musta sprained my ankle." Hikari said. I grabbed one of Hikari's arms, pulled it around my neck and wrapped my other hand around her waist to hoist her up.

* * *

My Pov

I blushed a little being this close to Sora. Salamon jumped up to me and I wrapped my available arm around her. This man, from the looks of him, probably only knew a little English. If any. Sora had to emphasize every word so that maybe this man would understand.

"Look, we got separated from our friends. Have you seen them?" Sora asked. The man grunted, as if he didn't understand what Sora had asked. "Friends..." The man mimicked Sora.

"Friends!" the man repeated. I sighed with relief, thankful that we were finally get somewhere.

"Right, our friends! There's two of 'em. The loud one is Dona-" Sora began. Then he stopped. He was about to ask if the man had seen Donald and Goofy. The man made a puzzled grunt. "You know what? Never mind. We're looking for our friends, Riku and Kairi." Were Donald and Goofy not our friends too? Or was Sora still mad at Donald from earlier?

"Look for Riku, friends?" the man asked.

"Right!" I said. I noticed something and leaned over and saw Riku. He was here?! Something was weird though. Instead of coming over to us, he just stood there looking at me. Sora leaned over too. Did he see Riku?

"Kairi, friends?" the man asked.

"Uhh... right..." Sora said. Riku turned half-way, walked off and disappeared.

"Friends here." the man said.

"Really!?" I asked.

"*&&X%." What? What was he trying to say?

"Not sure either of us understands, but show us!" Sora said.

"Take us to Riku and Kairi!" I said.

"Tarzan." the man said. At last we knew his name! "Tarzan go."

"And we're... Sora and Hikari. Tarzan go, Sora and Hikari go go!" Sora said. We followed Tarzan down the most unexpected path; through the trees. I hoped we'd find Riku and Kairi, but I also hoped we'd find Donald and Goofy too.

* * *

Donald's Pov

Me and Goofy were siting on a rock, surrounded by long stalks of bamboo.

"Gawrsh, where are we? I sure hope Sora and Hikari are okay." Goofy said.

"Hikari's the only one I'm worried about. But, who needs Sora? We just need one key to find the king." I said. I went to grab my wand, but I felt something else. I looked down to see a gorilla. Both of us screamed at each in surprise. Then we heard rustling. The gorilla ran off, but then dropped something. The rustling got closer. Then, a guy with a hunting rifle came into view.

* * *

My Pov

We finally came to a camp. My ankle still hurt, but I was able to walk on it. I looked around the camp and notice several slides on a table.

'Maybe I should hold onto them.' I thought. We walked into a tent and saw a woman fiddling with a projector.

"Jane!" Tarzan said. The woman turned around.

"Tarzan! Oh, who are they?" Jane asked.

"Uh, hi there. I'm Sora. This is Veemon." Sora said.

"My name's Hikari and this is Salamon." I said.

"Oh, you both speak English! So, then, obviously, neither of you are related to Tarzan... Are you here to study the gorillas?" Jane asked.

"Highly doubtful." a man said. That's when a man walked into the tent. Behind him were Donald and Goofy!

Goofy: "Sora! Hikari!" Goofy said.

"Guys, you're alright!" I said. I hugged Goofy.

"Goofy! Donald!" Sora exclaimed. At first, I thought Sora and Donald were really happy to see each other, but then they turned their heads from each. Great.

"A circus of clowns. Not much use for hunting gorillas." the man said.

"Mr. Clayton, we're studying them, not hunting them. This is research." Jane said. That guy was ticking me off. Jane turned her attention back to us. "well, the more the merrier. Do make yourselves at home."

"Well, anyway... I'm staying." Both he and Donald answered at the same time. "Huh?"

"Sora, Hikari, look what we found. Look at this."Goofy said. It was some strange block. It kinda reminded me of the block from Wonderland. Goofy and Donald explained that it could mean their king was here. Sora and Donald decided to stop arguing for awhile.

"Oh yes. We did find this strange Tag." Jane said. She held it up. It then glowed red along with Sora's Digivice. It then floated from Jane's hand into Sora's. I pulled out mine.

"Now you have one Sora." I said. "I think that this Tag and Crest helped Salamon digivolve to Champion before."

"Awesome! Then, that means I have Crest too." Sora said. It must be somewhere in this world.


	11. Dragon of Friendship

My Pov

Jane had told us that Tarzan had been raised by the gorillas and it wasn't easy trying to communicate with him. She thought using the projector would help. Good thing I picked up those slides. When the first slide came up, something in me stirred.

"Sora? Hikari? Are you both alright?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah." Sora said. I just nodded. My heart was fluttering a little. That place looked familiar. Was Sora feeling this sensation too? But why? I might have been to that place before, but Sora couldn't have. I noticed Salamon's tail slightly wagging. Did she recognize it too? Jane showed that last five slides and then turned to Tarzan.

"Well, Tarzan?" Jane asked.

"Where are our friends, Riku and Kairi?" Sora asked. Tarzan, sadly, shook his head, as if to say 'You're friends aren't here'.

"But, I thought that..." I said.

"That leaves just one place. Young lady, you and you're friend listen. We've been in this jungle for some time now. But we have yet to encounter these friends of yours. I'd wager they were with the gorillas. But Tarzan refuses to take us to them." Clayton said. Gee, I wonder why. I knew this guy was out to hurt those poor creatures.

"Really, Mr. Clayton. Tarzan wouldn't hide-" Jane said.

"Then take us there! Take us to the gorillas. Go-ril-las." Clayton said. Tarzan looked at me and Sora and then nodded his head. What was he looking at us?

"Tarzan... are you sure?" Jane asked.

"Tarzan go see Kerchak." Tarzan said.

"Kerchak?" Jane asked.

"He must be the leader. Perfect. I'll go along as an escort. After all, the jungle is a dangerous place." Clayton said. I saw him smirk. I didn't like this guy one bit. I could hear Salamon lowly growling. She didn't trust him either. We followed Tarzan to where the gorillas were suppose to be. There, we saw a female gorilla and a large gorilla who, I assumed, was Kerchak.

"(Kerchak, please listen to me. I know the nesting grounds are secret, but I trust them. You see, I want to help them because... because... well, they need us)." Tarzan said.

"Did anyone get that?" Goofy asked.

"No." Donald said.

"(Kerchak)." Tarzan said. The leader looked off in another direction and then left. "(Kerchak...)." I guess it did go to well. That's when I notice Clayton hadn't followed us. Where was he?

"Guys, Clayton isn't here." I said. Tarzan seemed the most worried and we hurried back to the tree house. I was the first one there. I saw Clayton pointing his rifle at something. I looked through the window to see a gorilla playing with a globe. He was going to shoot that poor animal! I felt rage building up in me. "Stop it!" I ran toward him. He started to pull the trigger. Darkness began to form around me. I couldn't calm down. "I said STOP IT!" I shot a blast of black fire from my hand and it hit his hand.

"Arrgh!" Clayton cried. He screamed in pain and dropped his rifle. The gorilla hurried up to the balcony just as everyone else showed up.

"What's the big idea!" Donald yelled.

"(Wait, Kerchak. Please!)" Tarzan cried. Tarzan's pleas fell on deaf ears. The mighty leader turned and walked away. The gorilla I had saved looked at me and then followed Kerchak.

"You don't understand. I was only trying to... Ah. A snake slithered by, you see. I saved that poor gorillas life." Clayton lied. 'Saved' my foot! This guy was going to end up hurting someone and by someone, I mean the gorillas. We headed back to camp and told Jane what had happened. Man, was she mad.

"How could you do such a thing!" Jane exclaimed.

"Now, Miss Porter, as I told you, I was not aiming at the gorilla." Clayton said.

"You are not to go near the gorillas again!" Jane said.

"All because of one mishap? Come now..." Clayton said. He saw all of us giving him harsh looks and knew Jane was serious. He left the tent. "I'm not the threat to the gorillas. That girl is! She's a monster!" Being called that word felt like someone had run a knife through my heart.

"Don't you dare call her that!" Sora snapped. Clayton had already left the tent. Sora walked up to me and gently grabbed my shoulders. "Hikari, don't listen to him. You' re not a monster." Sora wouldn't be saying that if he had seen me. My rage had become darkness. Salamon jumped up to me and licked my cheek.

"Don't cry, Hikari. Sora's right." Salamon said.

I was startled by the sound of a gunshot echoing through the air. I gripped onto Sora's jacket. He placed his hands on my head and back. "It's okay, Hikari." We hurried out of the tent to see a gorilla being attacked by Heartless.

"Guys, we have to save the gorilla!" I said. After saving it, we had to save three other gorillas. Then, we hurried to the cliff to see Heartless and Clayton. He went to shoot the female gorilla that had been with Kerchak as Heartless jumped ambushed the leader from above.

"No!" Sora cried. Clayton turned his attention to us, which allowed the gorillas to escape. "Clayton?"

"Not Clayton! *&&X%! Not Clayton!" Tarzan said. He started to shoot at us. We each jumped out of the way. I managed to sneak up behind him and hit him in the back. He stumbled, then regained his posture. He pointed his rifle upward and the whole rock wall exploded. Tarzan ran to attack Clayton, but he was pushed back. I heard I thrilling sound and saw Clayton floating in midair. Great. Another problem. It took awhile, but we managed to get the Heartless to drop its invisibility.

"Salamon, you have to digivolve!" I said.

"Right!" Salamon said. My Crest and Digivice both glowed.

 _"Salamon digivolve to... Gatomon!"_

"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon said. She went to punch Clayton, but the Heartless swatted her away. "This Heartless is much more powerful than the one before." Her being at Champion wasn't enough. The Heartless was about to stomp on her when-

"V-Headbutt!" Veemon said, headbutting into the Heartless's paw and knocking it back. "I won't let you hurt my friends!" Veemon held his arms out, shielding Gatomon.

"That's right. You may think you're powerful and can knock others around, but you won't do that to our friends!" Sora exclaimed. At those words, Sora's Digivice and his Tag both glower red.

 _"Veemon digivolve to... Veedramon!"_

Veemon had digivolved to Champion. He was bigger, with large horns and claws.

"Veemon... all right!" Sora exclaimed. Gatomon climbed onto Veedramon's back and they charged toward the Heartless and Clayton. After running around the Heartless for a bit, Gatomon jumped off Veedramon's back.

"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon exclaimed. Her paw made contact with Clayton's face, knocking him off the Heartless.

"V-Nova Blast!" Veedramon said. He spewed a high-temperature heat ray from his mouth and defeated the Heartless. The Heartless collapsed on top of Clayton as its heart was freed from its body. Veedramon and Gatomon reverted back to Veemon and Salamon. After everything settled down, Kerchak came up to us. He grabbed me and Sora and flung us over to the top of the ledge. Donald and Goofy followed soon after. Tarzan climbed up the ledge to join us.

"Tarzan, home." Tarzan said. We had come to a waterfall and drinking hole. Listening to the sound of rushing water reminded me of the small drinking pool back home. Home... Was it even there anymore after what happened? We followed Tarzan into the cavern and came to a cave where a large, vine-covered tree grew. There were a lot of blue butterflies blocking something that was shining. "*&&X%."

"This is your home? But that means..." Sora said. Tarzan held up his hand and then placed it to his ear.

"Huh?" Goofy asked.

"The waterfalls... They're echoing all the way here." Jane said.

"*&&X%. Friends there. See friends." Tarzan said.

"I think I get it now. When Tarzan says *&&X%, he's actually saying 'heart'. We see friends in our hearts." I said.

"Heart..." Tarzan mumbled.

"Oh, so that's what it meant." Sora said. I knew Sora was disappointed. So was I. But, why did I see Riku in the tree house before? And what had Sora seen?

"Friends, same heart. Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends. No heart, no friends." Tarzan said.

"Sorry about what I said." Sora apologized.

"I'm sorry too." Donald said. I was so happy to see Sora and Donald had decided to stop fighting with each other. I hugged Sora and Goofy pulled us all into a huddle.

"Yeah. All for one, huh?" Goofy asked. That's when the butterflies moved from the glow and revealed the Keyhole. Starlight and Kingdom Key appeared in our hands. We pointed them at the Keyhole. A beam of light shot from them and locked it. Then, another gummi block fell from the Keyhole.

"A gummi!" Donald said.

"But it's sure not the king's." Goofy said. That when Sora's Tag reacted to the Keyhole. A strange red symbol appeared and then slid into Sora's Tag.

"All right! Now I have a Crest too!" Sora said. I looked at the symbol and for some reason knew what it meant.

"And it fits you perfectly. You have the Crest of Friendship." I said. The gorilla I helped in the tree house walked up and kinda nudged Donald.

"I think someone has a new admirer." Jane said. Donald frantically shook his head.

"No, no, no, no! Daisy would kill me!" Donald exclaimed. Me, Salamon, Sora, Veemon and Goofy laughed at our silly friend.

* * *

 **The bold parts Tarzan was speaking were translated so people could understand what he was saying, as he spoke gorilla.**


	12. 100 Acre Wood

No one's Pov

 _Again, the evil ones watched the Keyblade bearers and their friends._

 _"What drew the Heartless to that world?" one asked._

 _"The hunter lured them there. It was his lust for power that was the bait. But it seems the bait was too tasty for his own good." the leader said._

 _"Yeah, he got chomped instead!" a second exclaimed._

 _"A wear-hearted fool like him stood no chance against the Heartless. But the children are a problem. They found one of the Keyholes. Not only that, but one of the Kingdom Crests as well." the second said._

 _"Fear not. It will take them ages to find the rest." the leader said confidently. A projection of the four appeared. "Besides, they remain blissfully unaware of our other plan._

 _"Yes, the princesses..." the third said._

 _"They are falling into our hands, one by one." The leader turned her attention to five of the princesses, Snow White, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella and Alice. "Speaking of which..."_

 _"Also, that girl... She seems quiet strange, but powerful." the third stated._

 _"Yeah and she also has a Kingdom Crest! Is she one of the chosen ones?" the fifth asked. The leader shook her head._

 _"No, but she could be a threat. We must keep a special eye on her. And I know the right person who can do just that." the leader said as everyone turned their attention to a certain silver-haired boy who entered the hall._

* * *

My Pov

We decided to head back to Traverse Town and show the gummi block to Leon. He'd probably know what to do with it. We arrived in Traverse Town and looked everywhere, but couldn't find him. Sora pointed to a blocked waterway.

"Why don't we go that way?" Sora suggested. It was sealed off, but if the four of us rammed into it... So we did and the bars busted down. We went down the newly made path and saw Leon and Aerith. With them were Liollmon and Aerith's partner, Lalamon.

"So, you found the Keyhole." Leon said, asking in a way.

"Yeah. Our Keyblades locked it automatically." Sora told him

"Good." Aerith said.

"Every world among the stars has a Keyhole. And each one leads to the heart of the world. There must be one in this town as well." Leon said.

"What makes you so sure?" I asked.

"It was in Ansem's report." Aerith told us.

"The Heartless enter through the Keyhole and do something to the world's core." Leon said.

"What happens to the world?" Sora asked.

"In the end, it disappears." Aerith said.

"What!" We exclaimed. Leon explained why our keys were so important. When we asked about the gummi block, Aerith suggested we ask Cid. Leon looked at me.

"Also, Hikari?" Aerith asked.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Before you and I fought, did you run into any Heartless that didn't disappear after you beat them?" Leon asked.

"Well, actually, this one Heartless jumped at me from above. I shot some kind of strange light at it, but it didn't disappear. Why do you ask?" I asked.

"Because, that same Heartless has been wondering around. As if looking for someone." Aerith said. That's when she left momentarily and came back with the Heartless. It jumped from her arms and started toward me. Sora stood in from of me.

"It's okay, Sora." I said. I knelt down to the Shadow and stared at it.

"You must have done something to it. It kept wondering around in all the districts looking for you." Leon told me. This Heartless was looking for me? It jumped and latched onto me. I cradled it like a little baby.

"You know, this Heartless is kinda cute. I'll call her Shadow." I said.

"You're not bring that thing with us! Donald cried.

"Donald, that Heartless doesn't look dangerous. It probably won't hurt us." Goofy said.

"I don't care!" Donald yelled. I didn't have time for this. I left through the waterway and headed to Cid's shop.

"What've you got there? Hey! Well, if it ain't a gummi block." Cid said and explained that it was a navigation gummi and said he would install it in the ship. While he did that, he wanted us to deliver a book to the old house in the Third District. I took the book and we headed toward that way. I looked at the book. I couldn't help, but get a familiar feeling from it. We got to the Third District and looked for the fire symbol on a door.

"There it is." Sora pointed out. Shadow jumped out of my arms and disappeared into my shadow. I guess that way I don't have carry her everywhere. I followed Sora and noticed the old house. It was kinda creepy. The front door was boarded up so we had to go around through a hole the was on the side of the house. This whole place was empty. There was no one here. I sighed heavily. That's when I heard a voice. Riku's voice.

"There's something about this musty place... " I turned around and saw him. "Kinda reminds you of the secret place back at home, where we drew the pictures of ourselves on the wall and then added the Paopu Fruit before we left. Remember, Hikari?" he asked, smiling.

"Riku?" I asked, reaching out for him. But my hand went right through him. Another illusion...

"Hikari?" I turned to Goofy and shook my head.

"Nothing." I said.

"Well, well." We turned to see an old man dressed like a wizard. "You've arrived sooner than I expected." he said.

"Wha... you knew we were coming?" Sora asked.

"Of course he knew. He's Merlin. A very knowledgeable wizard." I said. I covered my mouth. How did I know who he was?

"Well, good to see you grow into a lovely lady Hikari. But I sense that your memories are faded, are they not?" he asked. I nodded. He's met me before? And how did he-? Oh, right. Knowledgeable wizard. Merlin waved his wand over his bag and all types of furniture began coming out and growing until the entire house was furnished. I noticed a stand and decided to put the book there. That's when it opened by itself and Sora and I were sucked into it, along with Veemon and Salamon. Only one place seemed to be accessible, so we headed that way. We came to an empty meadow and saw a yellow bear with a red sweater, sitting on a log.

"Think, think. Think, think." the bear repeated.

"Hi there. What's wrong?" Sora greeted.

"Nothing. Just thinking." the bear said.

"Oh." I said.

"I was just thinking of how to say goodbye to Pooh." the bear said.

"Pooh?" Sora asked.

"Yes?" asked the bear.

"Wait. Are you Pooh?" I asked. Sora and I sat on opposite sides of the bear.

"Yes. I'm Winnie the Pooh. Pooh for short. Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Sora." Sora said.

"My name's Hikari." I said.

"Oh. Hello, Sora and Hikari. Have you both come to say goodbye to Pooh, too?" Pooh asked.

"Why would we?" I asked.

"Well, no. We've only just met." Sora said.

"Because everyone's gone away." Pooh said sadly.

"What'd mean?" I asked. Pooh told us about his friends and how his entire world just seem to disappear. He was like us in a way. Pooh went off to try and find some honey. "Sora, let's try to find those missing pages."

"Yeah. No one should ever be alone like this." Sora agreed. We silently promised Pooh that we would restore his home to how it was. When we got back, Sora decided to do some training with his magic. I decided to wait outside for them. I went to leave, but a voice stopped me.

"One moment dear." a voice said. A light flashed and in front of me appeared a rotund, elderly woman with grey hair, pale skin, and a long, white wand. She was dressed in a lavender cloak with a hood and a pink interior. She also wore a pink bow just under her neck.

"Who are you? " I asked.

"I am Fairy Godmother." she replied. "It is so good to see you again. My, you've grown into such a beautiful young lady." she said.

"Why is it people remember me, but I can't remember them?" I asked. She seemed sadden, but that quickly turned into happiness.

"Do not despair dear. Your memories will soon become clear. If you just believe." she told me. A memory flashed through my head. _'Fairy Godmother used her magic to change me from a five year old to a fifteen year old and dressed me up like a princess. Salamon wore a tiny silver tiara. I was dancing with someone, but I couldn't see his face.'_ A tear slid down my face. I wiped it away.

"Thank you Fairy Godmother. I will." I say, with thanks.


	13. Return of Riku and Kudamon

My Pov

I walked out of Merlin's House and went back to the Third District. Then, these two Solider Heartless appeared in front of me. They lunged at me and one of them knocked me down. They jumped, ready to kill me, but someone destroyed them.

"There you are Hikari." said the person. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I looked to see it was him. Riku. But, how could I be sure? Floating next to him was Kudamon.

"Kudamon!" Salamon exclaimed as she ran and nuzzled Kudamon and pecked his cheek.

"R-R-Riku? Is that really you? Not just some dream or illusion?" I asked, fearing it was another illusion. He laughed at me. He held out his hand and helped me up.

"I hope not. It took me forever to find you." he said. I jumped on him and wrapped my arms around his waist. "Whoa! Hikari are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's just... I've been seeing illusions of you everywhere and now you're actually here." I said, choking back tears. Riku tilted my chin up.

"I never stopped looking for you..." he said. He kissed me and I felt so much weight being lifted off me. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be kissed.

"Hikari!" Sora called. We broke apart just as Sora, Veemon, Donald and Goofy showed up. "There you a- Riku!" He ran to Riku and kinda pulled on his face to make sure it was actually him. Veemon and ran over to Kudamon. Veemon jumped and hugged him.

"Kudamon! You're okay!" Veemon said.

"Calm down Veemon. You're squeezing me too hard." Kudamon said.

"Hey, hey. Cut it out." Riku said, swatting Sora's hands away.

"I'm not dreaming this, right?" Sora asked.

"No. Riku's really here." I confirmed.

"Riku!" Sora said with joy. I was so happy that we found him. The happiness only lasted for a second when I realized Kairi wasn't with him.

"Wait, where's Kairi and Labramon?" I asked Riku.

"Aren't they with you guys?" Riku asked. No. Kairi and Labramon were out there all by themselves? What was she suppose to do if she ran into any Heartless? Labramon was was with her, but Labramon had never battled before. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the island, too. We're finally free. Hey, they might even be looking for us now." I felt something. I turned and saw a Heartless. It was creeping toward Riku. "We'll all be together again soon. Don't worry. Just leave everything to me. I know this-"Me and Sora cut him off by killing the Heartless just as it jumped for him.

"Leave it to who?" Sora asked with a smug tone.

"Sora, Hikari, what did you-" Riku tried to say.

"We've been looking for you and Kairi, too, with their help." I explained.

"Who are they?" Riku asked.

"Ahem. My name is-" Donald began.

"We've visited so many place and worlds, looking for you." Sora said.

"Really? Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed." Riku said. That's when I sensed something in Riku's voice. It was a hint of anger. What was Riku angry about?

"Oh, and guess what? Sora and Hikari are Keyblade masters." Goofy said.

"Who would've thought it?" Donald said.

"What's that suppose to mean!" I asked.

"So, this is called a Keyblade?" Riku asked, holding Kingdom Key. How did he-?

"Hey, give it back." Sora demanded. Sora went to grab it, but Riku jumped back, causing Sora to fall on his face. Riku held it above his head and examined it.

"Catch!" Riku said. He tossed it back to Sora.

"Oh yeah! Riku, that strange pendant is called a Tag and the tablet inside it is called a Crest. Sora has one too." I said.

"Really?" Riku asked.

"Yeah!" Sora said, pulling his Tag out from under his shirt and showing to Riku. "Hikari says it's called the Crest of Friendship."

"No surprise there. What's yours Hikari?" Riku asked. I pulled out my Tag and looked at it. I thought real hard and remember someone telling me what the symbol meant.

"Light." I said.

"It fits you." Riku said.

"You and Kudamon are coming with us, aren't you?" I asked.

"We've got this awesome rocket. Wait 'til you see it!" Sora said excitedly. I now saw not only anger, but jealousy in Riku's eyes. What was the matter?

"Forget it!" Donald said.

"Oh, come on! He's my friend!" Sora insisted.

"I don't care!" Donald said. Well, I do!

"Then, unless Riku's coming with us, I'm not taking another step further!" I stated.

"He's gone." Goofy said. I turned around and saw Riku had disappeared. Not again!

"Riku? Riku, where are you?! RIKU!" I cried out. I fell to the ground in tears. Why did he leave? Salamon came up to me and licked my cheek, trying to cheer me up. She always did that.

"Nice going." Sora said to Donald before walking over and helping me calm down. "At least he's okay, Hikari. And who knows? Maybe we'll run into Kairi soon, too." I wiped away my tears and smiled. Sora always knew how to cheer me up. We went into the house Leon, Yuffie, Aerith and Cid lived in. They told us how a witch named Maleficent had used the Heartless to overrun and destroy their world. Maleficent... That name filled me with so much rage for some reason. Where had I heard it before? I also felt sad thinking about it. Sora held my hand to make me feel better and I smiled again.

* * *

Riku's Pov

I watched as my so call 'best friend' held Hikari's hand. Maleficent was right. Sora was trying to steal Hikari from me.

"You see? It's just as I told you. While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend and the girl you treasure, they quite simply replaced you with some new companions. Evidently, now they value them more than they do you. You're better off without that wretched boy, his dragon and troublesome girl and her pup." Maleficent said. That made me snap.

"I'll have you know, that 'troublesome girl' is called Hikari. She's not like Sora. She won't ever replace me." I snapped at her.

"And 'that pup' is called Salamon." Kudamon snapped.

"If you have that much faith in her. Come with me now. I'll help you find what you're searching for..." Maleficent said. I took one last look at Sora and Hikari.

'You just wait Sora. I'll get you for this.' I said to myself.


	14. Someone Lost in Darkness

Sora's Pov

We walked out of the house and were about to try and find the Keyhole, when Hikari and Salamon started glowing.

"Salamon!" Veemon cried.

"Hikari?" I asked, scared at what was happening. Salamon vanished first.

"Sora!" she cried, reaching out for me, but then disappeared.

"Wah! What just happened?" Donald exclaimed.

"Where'd Hikari go?" Goofy asked, worried.

"Not you too..." I said, wondering where my other friend disappeared to.

* * *

My Pov

The light faded and I saw I was in another world. This one wasn't anything like the previous worlds I had been to. It was quite small and there was a tall tower near the edge of the world.

"Where am I?" I wonder, out loud.

"Hikari!" Salamon jumped into my arms. I decided to see if there was anyone here. I went up the small staircase that led to the door of the tower. Man, who would live in this place? There had to have been thousand of stairs I had to climb before I got to the last door. I knocked on it.

"You may enter." A voice gruff and deep voice answered. It sounded vaguely familiar. I opened the door and walked into a room. There, sat a rather severe-looking old man with long, grey hair, bushy eyebrows, and a long, grey beard that parts down the middle. He wears a conical sorcerer's hat on his head. The hat is blue and decorated with several yellow stars and a yellow crescent moon and wore long, billowing blue robes with sky blue lining, with the insides of his robes being dark red. He was kind of intimidating. "Do not be afraid, Hikari."

"You know my name?" I asked. He seemed surprised for a quick second, but then regained his stern composure.

"As I thought. You have lost your memories." he said to himself. I nodded, but I felt as though I knew his name.

"Wait. Aren't you... Master Yen Sid?" I asked. He nodded.

"Although, I am a Master no more. Hikari, I have brought you here, because I sense that a great danger is about to befall you and you friends." he tells me.

"What do you mean? Is something wrong with Sora and Veemon? With Riku and Kudamon? With Kairi and Labramon?" I frantically asked. He lowered his gaze from me.

"Kairi's location is unknown and out of my reach at this point. Her whereabouts are shrouded in shadows. Riku and Kudamon, on the other hand, are being lead astray by the evil fairy, Maleficent." he says. My eyes widened. "They are being deceived into believe you, Sora and your partners have replaced them, Kairi and Labramon with Donald and Goofy."

"That's crazy! We'd never do that." I exclaimed.

"That's right!" Salamon said in agreement.

"I know, but the way he saw you two with them is causing him to think that." he said.

"I've gotta find him! Tell him the truth!" I cried. Yen Sid held up his hand.

"I also summoned you here for another reason." I cocked my head to the side a little. What other reason? "I have brought you here to undergo the Mark of Mastery." he says.

"The what?" I asked.

"The Mark of Mastery is an exam where Keyblade bearers are tested to see if they are worthy of becoming full-fledged Keyblade Masters." he explained. I gasped at this. I was just learning how to use this thing! "Fear not, I see both your parents in you. I am confident you will not fail." My parents? He knew my parents?! Before I could ask, he waved his hand and I ended up in another world. I looked around. What was this gloomy place? There was nothing here but darkness.

"What am I suppose to-" I stopped, feeling a presence behind me. I looked to see something lung toward me. I managed to jump out of the way. I saw it was a creature of pure darkness. Salamon jumped out of my arms and hissed at the creature. Was this my test? Oh, well. It was hard to fight this thing since it kept disappearing into the darkness. I felt something in me stir. My light. I decided to do what I had before. I lifted my Keyblade and pointed it toward the creature. "Pearl!" A orb of white light shot from my Keyblade and hit the creature. It roared in pain and its true form became revealed.

"Hikari, I need to digivolve!" Salamon said.

"Go for it!" I exclaimed.

 ** _"Salamon digivolve to... Gatomon!"_**

* * *

?'s Pov

I heard the creature's roars. Was someone else here? Could it be Terra or Ven? I hurried to where the creature had been last time. My partner Penguinmon, who had been trapped here with me and had been reduced to her Fresh Form Pichimon, ran ahead of me. When I got there, I saw it wasn't Terra or Ven, but a young girl with a Keyblade and an Gatomon battling with her. What was someone like her doing here? She jumped and pointed her Keyblade at it.

"Prism Rain!" the girl yelled. Salvos of rainbow-colored orbs hit the creature and fatally injured it. How could she use one of my Shotlocks? The creature swung one of its claws and actually hit her. She skid across the ground and groaned in pain.

"I need to help her..." I said. I was about to jump in when the girl stood up. The Gatomon said something to her and I saw a bright light cloak on the girl cloak the Gatomon.

 _ **"Gatomon digivolve to... Angewomon!"**_

Angewomon? That was an Ultimate level Angel Digimon that I had only heard about, but never actually seen. Angewomon flew high in the air.

"Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon exclaimed. A rainbow colored light covered the girl and the creature. While it paralyzed the creature, it strengthened the girl. She stood her ground and raised her Keyblade.

"Lightbloom!" she yelled. She spun and released volleys of light and defeated the creature. How was she able to use that technique? Only Master Shiro and I knew it. The creature disappeared and the girl fell to her knees. Angewomon degenerated back to a Nyaromon. Her Nyaromon hopped into her arms.

"Hey, are you alright?!" I asked, worried. I placed one hand on her back and wrapped my other hand around her stomach. I healed her wounds, but she kept her head down. "Yes. Thank you for healing me." she said. Vaporeon went around and got a look at the girl's face. That's when she started jumping around.

"Pichi! Pichi!" Pichimon cried.

"Pichimon, what's wrong?" I asked. I hadn't seen her this excited in a long time. Pichimon then nuzzled the girl's Nyaromon, who seemed a little confused.

"That's strange." the girl said.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Master Yen Sid sent me here to take the Mark of Mastery." the girl explained. Master Yen Sid? Why would he send a young girl here? Just then, light surrounded her. "I guess he's calling me back. Thank you very much... uhh..."

"Aqua." I said.

"Aqua? That name sounds so familiar and so does your voice... Well, Aqua-" She turned around and I saw her face. "My name is Hikari and this is my partner, Nyaromon." she said. I felt tears fall down my face. It was them... Hikari and Nyaromon... they were safe. They had a shocked expression on their faces as well. Their memories may have faded, but some part of them still knew me. They began to disappear. No. I didn't want her to leave yet. I reached out for her.

"Hikari!" I cried. She looked confused, but something in her caused her to reach out for my hand.

"Aqua!" she cried. Our hands touched only for a minute before she vanished. I fell to my knees, crying. How could I have not recognized one of the people I loved more than anything before? I realized that's what Pichimon had been trying to tell me.

* * *

My Pov

I was back in the Mysterious Tower. I felt tears running down my face. That woman, Aqua... I knew her. She knew who I was, but... Arrgh! I couldn't remember! Nyaromon jumped into my arms and tried to comfort me.

"Hikari, don't cry!" Nyaromon said.

"Hikari, what happened?" Yen Sid asked. I got to my feet.

"I defeated that weird Heartless and met a woman named Aqua." I told him. He seemed shocked by the name I said.

"She is someone from your past. Someone you cared for." he says.

"What? Please, Master Yen Sid, tell about my past and parents!" I begged. He could see I wanted to know, but he frowned.

"It is too soon for you to know all of that information now. But, I will tell you in the near future." he says. I sighed heavily in depression. "Although, I would like to congratulate you."

"On what?" I asked.

"On showing me the Mark of Mastery. You are now a Keyblade Master." he said. I had passed. I did feel different than before. "Now, I think we should be getting you and Nyaromon back to Sora. Won't you say?" I giggled a little. He was probably turning all of Traverse Town upside down looking for us.

"Yeah. Thank you very much Yen Sid." I said, bowing to him, just before he sent me back to Traverse Town.


	15. Agrabah

My Pov

I looked around to see I was in the 2nd District. It didn't take long to stop Sora and the others.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy!" I called.

"Everyone!" Nyaromon said. They turned around and we waved to them.

"Hikari! Salamon!" they yelled. I jumped down to the lower level of the district and was knocked to the ground by Sora, causing me to drop Nyaromon. He pulled me into a uncomfortably tight hug.

"Sora, can't breathe!" I cried. He let go. I took several deep breaths.

"Where have you been? Where did you go? What happened to Salamon?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. Nyaromon, why are you back to your In-Training form?" Veemon asked.

"Can't tell." Nyaromon said.

"Sorry Sora, but that's all confidential." I said.

"Aw! Why?" Sora whined.

"It would take too long to explain. Right now, we need to go find Riku and Kairi." I said. He nodded his head and we departed from Traverse Town. Later,me and Sora discovered we could use wind magic. Soon we came to a new world. We landed, unaware of the life-changing events that would take place.

* * *

No one's Pov

In the world known as Agrabah, the evil fairy Maleficent and evil vizier Jafar, walked through the barren streets discussing their plan.

"And the Keyhole?" Maleficent asked.

"The Heartless are searching for it now." Jafar informed her. "I'm certain we'll find it soon enough. So that just leaves..." Just then, Jafar's parrot Iago flew down and landed on his shoulder.

"Jafar! I've looked everywhere for Jasmine. She's disappeared like magic!" Iago explained.

"The girl is more trouble than she's worth." Jafar sneered.

"You said you had things under control." Maleficent said, annoyed.

"Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in. But why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her or without her, surely this world will be ours once we find the Keyhole." Jafar said.

"We need all seven princesses of heart to open the final door. Any fewer is useless." Maleficent explained.

"Well, if the princess is that important, we'll find her." Jafar assured. "Find Jasmine and bring her to me at once." Several Heartless appeared and were lead by Iago into the city.

"Don't steep yourself in darkness too long. The Heartless consume the careless." Maleficent warned.

"Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary." Jafar huffed. The two villains were unaware that all they needed to do to find the Princess was to turn around. "Instead of finding all seven, why can't we focus on the one Princess? The one who' s heart is said to be filled with the purest light and deepest darkness?"

"You mean the ruler and protector over all worlds? The Princess who governs light and darkness?" Maleficent asked.

"Yes. The Princess of Kingdom Hearts..." Jafar said, hissing.

* * *

My Pov

We came to a city that was in the middle of the desert. The city was big, but for a big city, it was surprising quiet. The quietness was very unsettling. Then the Heartless showed up. We fought our way through. Soon, we came to an ally of sorts, but didn't see anyone. That's when Shadow emerged from the ground.

"Shadow, what's wrong? I asked. She sunk into the ground, slid across and popped back up near some crates. She started hopping as if to say someone was behind the crates. Nyaromon went over to where Shadow was.

"Over here!" Nyaromon said. I heard a gasp and saw a woman hiding behind the crates.

"Who's there? Hello?" She asked and came out from hiding. If I had to guess, by the way she was dressed, she was a princess. Turns out she was. She was the Princess of Agrabah, Jasmine. She told us how the vizier Jafar had gotten rid of her father and now he controlled the city. She also told us that Jafar was looking for the Keyhole and that a guy name Aladdin helped her escape. Jasmine seemed worried about Aladdin's safety.

"We'll go find him and make sure he's okay." Sora tells her.

"Thank you!" Jasmine said, happily. Shadow disappeared into my shadow again. Why does she always hide in my shadow? That's when we heard a creepy voice.

"Aladdin? Where might I find this street rat?" We looked up to see a very sinister-looking man carrying a snake staff. My guess; this was Jafar. "Jasmine, allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess. These little rats won't do, you see." he said haughtily.

"Jasmine, run!" I yelled. She hurried off to hide. Me and Sora summoned our Keyblades, ready to fight.

"Ah, the boy and girl who hold the key." Jafar said, but not before leaving Heartless for us to deal with. We fought our way through the city. My Digivice suddenly glowed.

 _ **"Nyaromon digivolve to... Salamon!"**_

We finally arrived at a house. We had to climb up a poll to get in the house. Poor guy. The house was really just a single room. That's when I heard something. I looked down and saw the most unusual thing in my life. A carpet was underneath a shelf, but here's the weird part; the carpet was moving and trying to get free! I manage to move the shelf enough to where the carpet got up and flew out the window.

"The carpet flew off toward the desert. Let's follow it!" Donald said. We hurried after the magic carpet. We found it waiting for us. It wanted us to hop on. We did and it took his further into the desert. This felt familiar. Then, another memory flashed through my head. _I was five and flying on a strange looking glider. I was gripping on to someone who wore armor._

 _"I'm scared, _!" the younger me cried._

 _"Don't worry Hikari. I won't let you fall. Just hold on tight." the boy said. I nodded and felt my fear melt away._

 _"Thanks V_! I love you!" the younger me said._ I felt tears run down my face. That boy... why did his voice make my heart flutter? Who was he? Why couldn't I remember?


	16. Princess of Kingdom Hearts

My Pov

We came to a very dark part of the desert and I notice something in the distance; It was a guy sinking in quicksand! Wait, that had to be Aladdin. I ran to help him, but Heartless started popping out of the sand. There were too many! We'd collapse from exhaustion before we got rid of them all. Then Aladdin got free and took out an oil lamp. He rubbed the lamp.

"Genie, get rid of these guys!" I yelled. Pink and blue smoke came from the lamp and the genie appeared. He was a large, sky blue being with black hair tied into a topknot(secured by a small gold ring). He had a small, pointed nose and curved, pointed ears. He wore a single gold earring on his right earlobe and had a black beard that ends in a curl. Genie only had four fingers on each hand. He wore a gold bracelet on each wrist and a ghostly tail that is a slightly darker shade of blue than the rest of his body was where his feet would have been. A red sash divides the upper and lower halves of his body.

"Wish Number One, coming right up!" bellowed the genie. All Genie had to do was snap his fingers and the Heartless disappeared. We hopped on Carpet and headed back to Agrabah.

"I see... Thanks, guys." Aladdin said.

"Aladdin, what're you doing out here?" Sora asked him.

"Same old stuff. Hunting legendary treasure. Just paid a visit to the Cave of Wonders. I found that magic carpet, and this lamp. Legend has it that whoever holds the lamp can summon the-" That's when Genie cut Aladdin off.

"Please, kid, leave the intros to a professional. The one and only GENIE OF THE LAMP! Rub-a-dub-dub the lamp and have your dearest wishes granted. Today's winner is... Aladdin!" He threw confetti over Aladdin. "Congratulations!"

"Any wish?" Donald asked.

"Patience, my fine, feathered friend! Any three wishes! A one wish, a two wish, three wish. Then I make like a banana and split! Our lucky winner made his first wish—and let me tell you, what a doozy that wish was—so he has two left. So, master, what'll you have for Wish Number Two?" Genie asked.

"Hmm, how about making me a fabulously wealthy prince?" Aladdin asked.

"Oooh! Money! Royalty! Fame! Why didn't I think of that? Okay, you asked for it! A hundred servants and a hundred camels loaded with gold!" Genie exclaimed.

"I think I'll put that on hold until we reach Agrabah." Aladdin said.

"Why do you want to be a prince?" I asked.

"You see, there's a girl in Agrabah named Jasmine. But she's a princess... and I'm... Aw, she could never fall for a guy like me." Aladdin said. I wouldn't be so sure.

"Oh. Princess?" Donald asked.

"Jasmine?" Goofy asked.

"Oh, that's right! She's in trouble, Aladdin!" Sora told him.

"What? Well, c'mon, let's get going!" Aladdin said. We hopped on Carpet and flew back to Agrabah. Eve and Pikachu sat on the edge of Carpet. They loved feeling the wind in their fur.

"Ah, fresh air! The great outdoors!" Genie said.

"You don't get out tat often, do you Genie?" I asked.

"Comes with the job. Phenomenal cosmic powers. Itty-bitty living space. It's always three wishes, then back to my portable prison. I'm lucky to see the light of day every century or two..." Genie said, woefully.

"Say, Genie, what if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp? What do you think?" Aladdin asked. Genie's eyes widen and his face lit up.

"You'd do that?" Genie asked.

"Genie, it's a promise. After we help Jasmine." Aladdin soon as we got back, we hurried through the city looking for Jasmine. We went to the palace to see Jasmine and Jafar.

"Setting you sights a little high, aren't you boy? Back to your hole, street rat. I will not allow you to trouble the princess any more." Jafar said.

"Jasmine!" Aladdin cried.

"I'm so sorry, Aladdin." Jasmine apologized.

"Genie, help Jasmine. Please!" Aladdin begged.

"One wish left! You're making this really easy, you know." Genie said, picking up Jasmine.

"So sorry, boy. I'm afraid you're second wish has been denied." Jafar said. That's when a red parrot flew up to Jafar and in its talons was the lamp!

"I'm sorry, Al." Genie said sadly. He dropped Jasmine in a vase and disappeared. The vase turned out to be a Heartless and began to walk off with Jasmine. We fought the Heartless Jafar had summoned while trying to get Jasmine, but they disappeared into the desert.

"They might have headed to the Cave of Wonders. Genie mentioned he might have seen the Keyhole there." I said. We hurried there. Man, no wonder no one went in this death trap. Booby-traps were everywhere. I managed to get ahead of everyone and came to a chamber. I saw Jafar talking to someone. Something in me told me that was Maleficent.

"That boy and girl again?" Maleficent asked annoyed.

"They're more persistent than I expected. Why not explain the situation with that boy Riku?" Riku? Did they capture him? Or... was he siding with them? "Doing so may actually prove useful to our-" Jafar was cut off by the appearance of Sora and the others soon joined me in the chamber.

"Wait a second. Are you Maleficent?" Sora asked. She said nothing and disappeared.

"Jafar, let Jasmine go!" Aladdin said.

"Not a chance. You see, she's a princess- one of seven who somehow hold the key to opening the door." Jafar said.

"Open..." Goofy began.

"the door?" Donald finished.

"But you fools won't live to see what lies beyond it." Says you. "Genie! My second wish. Reveal to me the Princess of Kingdom Hearts!" Jafar demanded. Genie snapped his fingers and I became cloaked in light for a couple of seconds. Eve looked at me shocked.

"What?" I asked, completely confused.

"Hikari... It's... you..." Sora said in disbelief.

"Hikari's..." Donald said.

"a Princess?" Goofy finished for him.

"So, at last, the ruler and protector of all worlds, the one who governs light and darkness, Kingdom Hearts' Princess is revealed." I slumped to the ground. I was a Princess? That was impossible! There was just no way... "Genie! My final wish! I want you to make me an all-powerful genie!" Jafar proclaimed. Genie sent a small magical beam at Jafar. Jafar floated through the floor and caused the entire cave to shake.

"Hikari, stay here with Jasmine." Sora told me, knowing it was all I could do with the sudden discovery. The others went to fight Jafar. Eve tried to cheer me up, but it was no use. All that was running through my mind was that I was the Princess of Kingdom Hearts.


	17. The Most Important Thing

My Pov

Jasmine was still unconscious and I could hear the sounds of Sora's battle with Jafar. Really, I was focused on was what had just been revealed about me. Tears flooded from my red, puffy eyes and down my hot cheeks. Salamon jumped into my arms and I squeezed her tight. I curled up in a ball with my face buried in Salamon's fur.

"Why?! Why is it me?!" I cried.

"Why is what you?" a voice asked. I snapped straight up and turned around. It was Riku. He was here.

* * *

Riku's Pov

I saw the state Hikari was in. Her clothes were covered in sand dust, her hair was slightly messy, but what really hurt me was the look on her face. Her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were red. Had Sora done something to make her upset? Salamon jumped from her arms and nuzzled Kudamon.

"Riku!" Hikari exclaimed. She started crying again. I wrapped my arms around her and she did the same to me. I swear, Sora was gonna get it if he did something to Hikari!

"Hikari, what's wrong? Did you and Sora have a fight?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"No. It's just that... I just found out something about myself. Something completely impossible." She choked out. What did she mean?

"What are you talking about?" I asked. She was about to answer when there was a loud boom and a quake. The quake cause Hikari to slip and fall toward the ocean of lava below. "Hikari!" I reached out for her hand.

"Riku!" She screamed, grabbing my hand. I was struggling to lift her up because the heat was hitting me. I finally managed to pull her to safety, but she was fainted from the heat. "Riku..." She was barely conscious. "Maleficent is lying to you... Don't believe what she says..." Her eyes closed and her body went limp. What? I had to listen to Maleficent. It was the only way to get Kairi. I laid Hikari gently on the ground. Salamon ran to her side and sat down next to her. I turned my attention to the princess. I grabbed her and hurried back to Hollow Bastion.

* * *

Sora's Pov

I managed to hit Iago and, luckily, that caused him to drop Jafar's lamp.

"Okay, Jafar! Back to your lamp!" I said, holding up the lamp. A red whirlpool of magical beams surround Jafar and pulled him into the lamp. We hopped on Carpet and flew back to where Jasmine and Hikari were.

"Jasmine? Jasmine!" Aladdin yelled. Jasmine was gone and Hikari was lying unconscious on the ground. Salamon started jumping up and down.

"Sora! Over here!" Eve exclaimed.

"Hikari!" I yelled, running and picking her up. I gently shook her. "Hikari! Hikari, wake up!" To my relief, she opened her eyes.

"Sora?" Hikari asked, sitting up.

"You must have gotten hit on the head or something. Come on. We've gotta seal the Keyhole." I tell her. She nodded and got up. We pointed our Keyblades at the Keyhole and locked it. That's when the whole cave started shaking.

"Whoa, we'd better get out of here!" Goofy exclaimed. We all got on Carpet. Me and Goofy had to hold onto Aladdin to prevent him from jumping off. Carpet was having to carefully and quickly navigate through the cave as debris and spouts of fire almost hit us. We got back to Agrabah safely, but Aladdin was depressed. We explained to him that Jasmine had been taken to another place.

"So, Jasmine's no longer in Agrabah. Sora, Hikari, let's go find her." Aladdin said.

"Aladdin I'm sorry, but..." Hikari began to say, but faded off. Salamon pawed at Hikari's leg, wanting to cheer her up.

"We can't take you with us." I said regretfully. He clearly was upset.

"Wh-Why not?" Aladdin asked.

"I sure wish we could..." Goofy said.

"But we can't. If we take him to another world, we would be..." Donald said.

"Muh...Mudd-" Goofy stammered.

"Meddling!" Donald yelled.

"Aladdin, we'll find Jasmine. I promise." I swore.

* * *

My Pov

Seeing Aladdin like this reminded me of myself when Riku vanished. Wait, did Riku take Jasmine? He could have... Could he? But, I could tell by the way Salamon was avoiding eye-contact that Riku had taken Jasmine.

"Uh, earth to Al. Hello? You still have one wish left. Look, just say the word. Ask me to find Jasmine for you." Genie said.

"I... I wish... for your freedom, Genie." Aladdin said.

"Al!" Genie cried. Pink magical beams swirled around Genie and when they disappeared, Genie's ghostly tail had been replaced with solid legs. Then, the bracelets, which were actually shackles, disappeared too.

"A deal's a deal, Genie. Now you can go anywhere you want. You're your own master. But if you can, it'd be great if you could go along with them and help Sora and Hikari find Jasmine." Aladdin asked.

"Hmm. Sorry, Al. I'm done taking orders from others. But... A favor, now that's entirely different. I guess I could give that a try. After all, we're pals, right, Al? Just leave it to me!" Genie said. Then Aladdin smiled.

"Guys, find Jasmine for me." Aladdin asked.

"We will. I promise." I said. We sent off, not knowing what world we'd end up in next.

* * *

No one's Pov

 _Maleficent, Hades and Riku watched as the four friends departed from Agrabah._

 _"That smarmy vizier could've had 'em- if someone had stuck around to give him a hand." Hades sneered. This annoyed Riku and Kudamon._

 _"It wasn't our job." Kudamon said._

 _"Hey, I did my part. I brought the princess, didn't I?" Riku asked._

 _"Jafar was beyond help, consumed by his own hatred. One should beware of letting it burn too brightly." Maleficent said._

 _"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Lighten up. I'm as cool as they come, okay? By the way, kid, have we got something special for you." Hades said. Riku looked from Hades to Maleficent in confusion._

 _"We had a deal, yes? You help us, and we grant you your wish..." Maleficent said. On the table appeared a projection of..._

 _"Kairi!" Riku exclaimed._

 _"Go to her. Your vessel is waiting." Maleficent told him. Out of the shadows appeared Captain Hook._

 _"Just remember, this is no pleasure cruise. It won't be a pleasant voyage." Captain Hook said. Hikari's words of caution echoed in Riku's mind. "Riku... Maleficent is lying to you... Don't believe what she says..." He knew the girl he loved wouldn't lie to him._

 _"Why are you doing all of this for me? What's the catch?" he asked._

 _"Catch? What's the catch? Silly boy. You're like a son to me. I only want you to be happy." She said, gently caressed Riku's cheek. The boy slightly flinched at her cold touch. He immediately smacked her hand away._

 _"I seriously doubt that." he said._

 _"Believe what you wish. But lest we forget, I kept my end of the bargain." the evil fairy says. Riku went off to Captain Hook's ship. He quietly mumbled to himself._

 _"Hikari, I'll win you back. Sora's gonna pay big time for trying to steal you from me. That's a promise." Little did Riku know that Hikari was right about him not trusting the evil fairy._


	18. Monstro

My Pov

We were traveling through space. All the while, I kept wondering about Riku. Something was wrong. Instead of staying with us, it's like he was trying to avoid us. Or, Sora anyways.

"What is that?" Donald asked. I turned my attention to what Donald was looking at. What was that?

"Wow. It's huge!" Sora exclaimed. Then I saw its mouth open as it made some sort of call. Then it 'swam' over us and I finally got a better look at it. it was a whale!

"It's a giant whale!" Goofy said.

"It's Monstro! He's a whale of a whale, and vicious besides!" Jiminy came back into view and I got the gut feeling he was going to trying and eat us.

"Whoa! Hikari, get us out of here!" Donald yelled. The giant whale was starting to come back our way. He was going to eat us! At times like this, I hated being right!

"Too late! He's going swallow us!" I cried. That was the last thing I said before the giant whale swallowed our ship whole.

* * *

Sora's Pov

Flashback

 _"It's true! I saw it with my own eyes!" I said to Riku._

 _"You sure you didn't just hear it this time?" Riku asked, not believing me._

 _"What difference does it make? There's a huge monster in there, I tell you!" I exclaimed._

 _"There is! There is!" DemiVeemon agreed._

 _"All right. Suppose there really is a monster... Think we can beat it by ourselves, Sora?" Riku asked. I looked at him with confidence._

 _"No problem. Let's do it!" Riku turned to me. "Listen! There! Can you here it growling?" Riku's Kyaromon and DemiVeemon's ears perked up._

 _"Shh, quite. We've gotta be careful." he said. We went through the small mouth of the cave into a cavern on the other side. "See that? It's just the wind making that noise." I told me._

 _"Aw, man. I wish it had been a monster! Hold on! What's that over there?" I said, disappointed. I looked like some kind of door. Riku went over to it._

 _"A window, or maybe a door? It won't open." he said, failing to open it.._

 _"Geez, is that really all that's in here?" I asked._

 _"What do you expect in a boring place like this? Hey, Sora." Riku said, getting my attention._

 _"Hm?"_

 _"When we grow up, let's get off this island. We'll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff!" he said._

 _"Sure. But isn't there anything fun to do now? Hey, you know the new girls? The one staying at the mayor's house and the one who's staying with you? Did you hear?" That's when I felt my consciousness flow back._

End of Flashback

I felt someone shaking me, trying to get me to wake up. I opened my eyes to see Hikari, Salamon and Veemon hunched over me.

"Knock it off!" I heard Donald scream. Hikari helped me to my feet. Veemon dusted my clothes off.

"Hey, Sora. Are you okay?" Goofy asked.

"What are you guys doing? Where are we, anyway?" I asked. That's when a chest fell and almost hit me.

"Where else? Inside the Goliath whale's mouth." Hikari told me.

"And for today's weather: expect showers." Goofy said. Then, another chest fell on Goofy's shield which was covering his head. "Heavy showers."

"Hey! Who's there?" Donald asked, yelling.

"It's me." a voice said. It was Pinocchio.

"Oh, it's just Pinocchio. Pinocchio!?" Donald exclaimed. Jiminy popped out of my hood at the mention of Pinocchio's name.

"Pinocchio? Pinocch, where are you going? Pinocch!" he called. "Come on, everybody! After him! Quick!"

* * *

My Pov

We had to swim across the small lake that had form in Monstro's mouth to get to the small boat that was near dry land. Salamon and Veemon shook themselves dry. I saw an elderly man on the boat. He was talking to Pinocchio. Must be his father, Geppetto.

"What have you got there, Pinocchio?" Geppetto asked his son.

"With this, we can get out of here, Father." Pinocchio said with confidence.

"Really? With this big block? You think so?" Geppetto asked. We all lifted ourselves up to the boat.

"It's true. So, how did you end up here, Pinocchio?" Sora asked.

"Oh, my. So the whale swallowed all of you, too? My goodness." Geppetto exclaimed.

"Yeah, looks like it." Sora said.

"Are you Pinocchio's father, Geppetto?" I asked.

"Yes, I am." he answered. I was happy to know that the father and his son were reunited. "When we got separated, I traveled all over, looking for him. Thank goodness we're together again." Geppetto picked up the large gummi block. "So, you seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence. Well, we've all had quite a journey. Right, Pinocchio? Pinocchio?" He was gone. I managed to catch a glimpse of him going further into the whale. Salamon and Veemon ran ahead of us.

"He's gone that way. Let's go!" I said. The four of us hurried after Pinocchio. We found him lingering in an opening. "What are you doing Pinocchio? Let's get you back to your dad."

"You know, Geppetto's awfully worried about you." Goofy said.

"Pinocchio, stop fooling around! This is no time for games!" Sora scolded. We turned around to walk back when we heard Riku's voice.

"But, Sora, I thought you liked games." We turned to see him and Kudamon standing next to Pinocchio. "Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?" he asked.

"Riku! Wh-What are you doing here?" Sora asked.

"Just playing with Pinocchio." Riku simply said. What was this? I was feeling so many emotions coming from Riku. Anger, jealousy, betrayal and sadness. I could tell Salamon was feeling the same from Kudamon. This was Maleficent's fault. She was turning Riku and Kudamon against Sora and Veemon.

"You know what I mean! What about Kairi? Did you find her?" Sora asked, frantically.

"What about Labramon? Is she okay?" Veemon asked.

"Possibly." Kudamon said.

"Maybe. Catch us and maybe I'll tell you what I know." Riku teased. He did know something about Kairi! I could always tell when he was hiding something.

"Come on!" Sora said, annoyed. Kudamon flew ahead while Riku grabbed Pinocchio and ran deeper into Monstro's bowels. Salamon and I ran after them before the others could react. I had to warn him. I had to tell him he was being tricked and used by that witch of a fairy. If he doesn't listen to me, he'll go down a path where there's almost no turning back. He'll do something he'll regret for the rest of his life. I caught a quick glimpse of Riku. He was talking to Maleficent. I hid so she won't see me. I had to cover Salamon's mouth since she was growling.

"Why do you still care about that boy? He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions, after all." Maleficent asked.

'Riku, don't believe her! She's lying!' I cried to myself.

"I don't care about him. I was just messing with him a little." Riku said. I felt my heart break a little. How could Riku say that about someone who's been his best friend and like a little brother to him for basically his whole life?

"Yes. Sora is easy to mess with." Kudamon said.

"Oh, really? Of course you were. Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it." Maleficent warned.

"Mind your own business." Riku snapped.

"Also, why do you still care for that girl and canine? She's obviously infatuated with your former friend and his dragon." lied the evil fairy. Lying bitch! We've only seen Sora and Veemon has a treasured friend and brother! Nothing along the lines of having crushes on them. Salamon was trembling with anger.

"Not a chance. Hikari's always been there with me and she's never lied to me once." Riku said confidently.

"The same goes for Salamon. She's honest and loyal." Kudamon said. At least they weren't buying all her lies.

"Oh really? They tell you everything? You may want to reconsider that thought." Maleficent said before disappearing. Wecame out of hiding.

"Riku." He turned his attention to me and he smiled. It was his real smile. He walked over to me and hugged me. I gripped on to his vest, afraid he'd leave me if I let go. Kudamon somewhat wrapped himself around Salamon.

"Riku. Please listen to the next thing I say to you." He locked eye-contact with me. "Maleficent is lying to you. Sora and me would never replace you and Kairi. You should know that. Why are you siding her?" I wanted to know.

"Kudamon, you and Riku need to stop before it's too late!" Salamon said.

"They have Kairi and Labramon. And... she's lost her heart." Riku said. I felt mine come to a complete stop. Kairi's heart was lost? But how?

"What?" I asked in disbelief.

"You heard me. This is the only way. If Kairi's heart has been taken by the Heartless, siding with Maleficent is the only way." Riku said. I felt my heart break even more.

"As for Labramon, she is slowly degenerating back to a DigiEgg. I believe it is because Kairi's heart is lost. If we don't find it, Labramon may disappear forever!" Kudamon exclaimed.

"No way..." Salamon said.

That's when Pinocchio ran past both of us. Pikachu wasn't far behind him and stopped by me. Sora, Donald and Goofy showed up.

"Riku! What's the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don't you realize what your doing?" Sora asked angrily.

"What's the big idea, Kudamon?" Veemon asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days. Do you even want to save Kairi?" Riku asked.

"I do." Sora said. A scream cut through the moment of silence and I realized that scream came from...

"Pinocchio!" I cried. Salamon and I ran past Riku and into the bowels chamber.


	19. Doubts and Lies

My Pov

That's where I saw a boss Heartless. It's main body was a large, magenta blob with glowing yellow eyes and thin, rounded teeth that resemble prison bars. This body rests on a flower-like base that was violet and aquamarine. A much smaller pink head rests on top of the main one. This second head sported a jagged mouth, glowing yellow eyes, two short, dark purple spikes under its mouth, and a curled, magenta antenna on its head. Two long, aquamarine tentacles sprout from either side of the second head and end in violet "hands" with three fingers, each with a dark purple spike on it. Its Heartless emblem was between its eyes. I saw Pinocchio was inside the main body. "Hold on, Pinocchio! I'll get you out." I charged at the Heartless and manage to hit it a couple of times. I didn't pay attention and one of its tentacles wrapped around me and one of the spikes pierced my stomach. I screamed in pain.

"Hikari!" Salamon cried.

"Hikari!" I heard Sora and Riku cried. I felt blood dripping down the lower half of my body. My vision went black soon after.

* * *

Riku's Pov

I became enraged. I slashed at the Parasite Cage and actually cut one of its tentacles off. It roared in pain and dropped Hikari. I caught her and cradled her in my arms. She bleeding too much. No, I couldn't lose her. Salamon pushed her paws on Hikari's arm, trying to wake her up. Sora and his friends managed to deal with the Heartless. Sora ran over to me.

"Is she..." Sora asked.

"She bleeding too much." I said.

"Riku, do you know any healing magic?" Sora asked me.

"Yeah, some." I answered.

"Both of us will heal Hikari at the same time." Sora said. I had little choice if I wanted to save Hikari's life." I set her down gently. "We both pointed our Keyblades at her. A green light shone from both of them and then from Hikari. The wound was gone and there wasn't even a scar. The Parasite Cage lifted itself up and spit Pinocchio out. I ran after him.

* * *

My Pov

I woke up to the sound of someone calling my name. It was Sora.

"...kari ...Hikari!" Sora cried. I opened my eyes to see a relieved Sora. "You're alright!" He hugged me gently so as not to hurt me. Salamon jumped into my arms and nuzzled me. Sora helped me to my feet and I noticed that Riku, Pinocchio and the Heartless were gone.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The Heartless spit Pinocchio out and Riku went after him." Sora told me. We jumped through the hole in the bowels and followed after Riku. We found ourselves back on Geppetto's boat and saw the man calling out to Riku, who had Pinocchio.

"Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Please! Give me back my son!" Geppetto cried.

"Sorry, old man. I have some unfinished business with this puppet." Riku said.

"He's no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!" Geppetto exclaimed.

"He is unusual. Not many puppets have hearts. I'm not sure, but maybe he can help someone who's lost theirs." Riku said. Sora began shocked at this.

"Wait a minute. Are you talking about Kairi?" Sora asked.

"What do you care about her?" He snapped before leaving. Did he not remember what said I to him? We ran after him and came to the stomach.

"Riku! Let Pinocchio go back to his dad! It isn't right for you to separate them." I said.

"A puppet that's lost it's heart to the Heartless... Maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it, Sora? Let's join forces to save her. You, me and Hikari can do it, together." Riku asked. What Sora did was unexpected. He actually got into a fighting stance, ready to fight his best friend. "What? You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?"

"Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience." Sora said. Riku scoffed at this.

"Conscience?" Riku asked. Jiminy hopped out of Sora's hood and ran to Pinocchio.

"You might not hear it, but right now it's loud and clear. And it's telling us your on the wrong side!" Sora exclaimed.

"Then you leave me no choice." Riku said.

"Pinocchio! Pinocchio!" Jiminy cried.

"Jiminy... I'm not gonna make it." That's when a light shrouded Pinocchio. He looked back up and his nose had grown a little. Jiminy told me that when that happened, Pinocchio had told a lie. "Oh! I guess I'm okay!" Pinocchio said happily. While everyone else was relieved Pinocchio was okay, Riku was disappointed. Just then, the same Heartless from before(except much bigger)dropped down out of nowhere. It was harder to fight this thing, but I manage to not get caught. Then Shadow jumped out of the ground and rammed her claws through the Heartless's stomach. Salamon and Veemon both attacked the spot where Shadow had struck the Heartless. A heart emerged from it and the acids of the whale's stomach began bubbling.

"Run!" Donald yelled.

"Riku! Riku, where are you?" I cried. Sora grabbed my hand and we ran back to the gummi ship.

* * *

Riku's Pov

I looked over at Kairi. She looked like she was sleeping, but she wasn't.

"So, Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?" I asked.

"Precisely." Maleficent said.

"And her heart was..." I said, fading off.

"Taken by the Heartless, no doubt." Maleficent said.

"Tell me! What can I do?" I pleaded.

"There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the princesses of heart. Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. It also would lead the way to the Princess of Kingdom Hearts." said Maleficent.

"The Princess of Kingdom Hearts? Wouldn't she be a princess of heart?" I asked. Maleficent shook her head.

"No. The Princess of Kingdom Hearts is much powerful than the seven princesses combined. Her heart is fill with the purest light and deepest darkness. She is also said to be able to create and destroy hearts at will." Maleficent explained.

"Could she recreate Kairi's heart if I found her?" I asked.

"Yes. Now, I'll grant you a marvelous gift. The power to control the Heartless." Maleficent said. I felt dark energy surround me and flow into me. I could feel myself getting stronger. The darkness seeped into Rockruff, Eevee and the rest of my Pokémon. "Also, take this little one with you." Maleficent held out a Dusk Ball and opened it, revealing a Zorua. I turned to Kairi.

"Soon, Kairi. Soon." I said. I would defeat Sora and get Hikari back. I would hurt Sora in the worst way possible. Hikari would be mine and mine alone.


	20. Atlantica

My Pov

I was helping the ship travel through the space sea carefully. Soon we came to another world. I looked out the window to see it was an underwater world.

"Okay, guys. Prepare for landing." Donald said. What? Had Donald lost his mind!?

"Land where? In the sea? We'll drown!" Sora exclaimed.

"Donald, seriously, how are we suppose to breathe down there?" I asked.

"Not with my magic, we won't. Just leave it to me." Donald said

"Hikari, why don't you try using your own magic? That way you get the hang of using it." Goofy suggested. I guess. Me and Sora first returned Eve and Pikachu. We landed and then dove into the ocean. I opened my eyes to see I was able to breathe. I looked at Sora, Donald and Goofy. Donald had become a squid, Goofy had become a sea turtle and Sora had become a merman. Sora's tail looked like a dolphin in a way. That's when I saw them staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You look amazing." Sora said. I saw a rock that was somewhat like a mirror so I swam to it. Or to the best of what I could. I gasped at my reflection. I wore a shimmering pink and orange gradient top with magenta accents and pale pink flowery lace shaped lining at the bottom. On the sides of the waist were lilac and dark orange grading fin-like shapes of cloth, and for the sleeves, it reaches to the elbow, but a part of it is cut-off. The color of it is grading orange to pink with a small blue crystal at the end. Under this layer is a layer of light orange laces. Near the underarm were some blue shells connecting the lilac orange cloth. At the chest was a small light blue to creamy white grading ruffled cloth with a round blue crystal with golden wings spreading out of it, and a small blue droplet crystal also with wings spreading above the cloth. It came with a simple bracelet and a small blue. The whole top has a mermaid pattern. A glittering light blue to emerald grading tail, being mixed shades of creamy white, pink, and orange gradient textures. The front has gold detailing on top shaped like a heart, while the side parts have blue clams on them. The belt of the tail was violet, and there were red gems that dangle from the bottom of the blue part. The fins were the same colors, but much more vibrant and didn't include orange but replaced with yellow. There are some silver vine patterns, silver studs and blue gems and diamonds decorating the wings. On my head was blue-white headband with a white shell in the centre and an emerald-blue gem with some smaller silver pearls in it, and on the sides are pale pink, purple, blue, and orange gradient wings shaped like a swan crown. Also came with red droplet diamond earrings with blue cloths behind it. I still wore my Wayfinder, but it had shrunk down to the size of a small seashell(Look at Aikatsu; Mermaid Pisces Coord).

"Wow..." I said.

"Hikari! Sora!" Salamon called. I looked and saw both her and Veemon had changed too. Veemon had become a Depthmon and Salamon became a Tylomon. That's when I felt something tap my back. I turned to see a Heartless. I was about to summon my Keyblade when I notice the emblem on it's head wasn't the same. It was the Kingdom Hearts emblem. "Shadow, is that you?" I asked. The Heartless nodded. She had gone through an appearance change too. She had a number of small bluish-green tentacles dangling beneath her. She also has two massive pale blue ones in the front that could allow her to deal large amounts of damage with her attacks. She had a light grayish-blue transparent head and hidden behind the emblem there were other Heartless visages, complete with a crooked, toothy smile, bright yellow eyes, and a medium-length plume that ends in a spiral(Shadow basically became a Sea Neon).

"So, Shadow changed too?" Sora asked.

"I guess so." I said. We all started swimming to try and adjust to our appearance change. That when I saw another mermaid headed this way. Behind her was a crab and a guppy.

"Come on, Sebastian!" the mermaid cried. The crab, who I guessed to be Sebastian, was helplessly trashing in the water trying to keep up.

"Ariel, wait! Slow down! Don't leave me behind!" Sebastian yelled, swimming up to Donald and freaking out. He and the guppy hid behind Ariel.

"Relax, Sebastian. They don't look like one of them. Even the one hiding behind the girl." Ariel said. That's when I saw Shadow had hidden behind me and one of her tentacles was wrapped around my arm. "Right, Flounder?"

"I don't know. There's something weird about them." Flounder said.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked, nervously. Ariel swam around both of us.

"They do seem... a little different. Where are you from?" Ariel asked.

"We're from kind of far away. And we're not really use to these waters." Sora lied. There's no way she'd buy that!

"Oh, I see." She actually believed it? Oh, well. "In that case... Sebastian can show you how we swim around here." Ariel said.

"Ariel, King Triton will not like this!" Sebastian exclaimed.

"Oh, don't worry." Ariel said. It took a little practice, but soon, we all got it. Shadow even looked like she was enjoying herself. Veemon and Salamon looked liked they were having fun too.

"Good job. Now let's move on to self-defense." Sebastian said.

"Sebastian!" Ariel cried. She pointed at the way they came and Heartless were swimming this way.

"Class is over! Good luck!" Sebastian exclaimed. Ariel, Sebastian and Flounder hid while the rest of us fought the Heartless. Shadow was helping too. It was great to see them helping us out more. I always wondered why Shadow would hide in my shadow. Sebastian was afraid that the Heartless were heading for the palace, so we followed the trident sign on the rocks until we came to a beautiful underwater castle. Unfortunately, Heartless were swarming in the courtyard. We swam to the palace and into the throne room. The Heartless were right behind us. That's when a gold beam of energy hit the Heartless and destroyed them.

That was too close." voice boomed. We turned to see King Triton. "As long as I have the trident, I will not tolerate those creatures in this place." I made sure to keep Shadow behind me and hoped he won't see her. Salamon also hid behind me, but made sure to keep Shadow hidden.

"Daddy!" Ariel exclaimed. King Triton was Ariel's father? That means she's a princess!

"Oh, Ariel! When will you listen? It's dangerous out there! Strange creatures lurk outside." King Triton said. He looked over to us as he said this. He knew we weren't from here. I could see it in his eyes.

"Behold. You swim before you ruler of the seas: His Majesty, King Triton." Sebastian proclaimed.

"And who are they?" Triton asked.

"They helped us fight off those creatures." Ariel said.

"They don't look familiar." Triton said.

"We're from an ocean very far away." I said.

"Yup. We came to find the Keyhole." Goofy said without thinking. Goofy!

"The what?" Triton asked.

"What's that?" Ariel asked.

"Well, it's a-" Goofy began. King Triton slammed his fist down. Shadow jumped and the tentacle's grip on my arm tightened a little. Salamon shrank behind me even more.

"There's no such thing. Certainly not here." Triton said. He was lying. I could sense there was a Keyhole here. Wait, I could I... Oh yeah. Princess of Kingdom Hearts.

"But, Daddy..." Ariel said, but was cut off by her father.

"Ariel, not another word! You are not to leave the palace. Is that clear?" Triton asked. Ariel got angry and swam out of the throne room. We followed after her. His strictness reminded me of someone. Another memory flashed through my head. _'I was five and a man with black hair tied into a short, high topknot, with one bang falling off to the right side of his face was hunched over, hugging me and crying._

 _"Please forgive Hikari. I told myself it was to protect you, but all my neglectfulness toward you only caused you the worst kind of hurt." the man pleaded._

 _"It's okay. I understand why you were pushing me away and I forgive you." I looked up and wiped the tears that I hadn't realized had formed from my eyes._

 _"Thank you. I swear to you this, I will no longer distance myself from you. I promised your mother I would protect you." the man told me._

 _"What was she like?" I asked._

 _"I'll tell you when you're a little older Hikari. Let's get you to your room. I can tell you have had a tiring journey." the man said. I rubbed one of my eyes. I took hold of his hand and we walked away._

 _"I'm holding you to your word, Daddy." I said._ _Daddy? That man was my father?_

"Hikari!" Sora exclaimed. I snapped out of my daze and looked at Sora. "Come on." I followed after my friend. Finally, I remember my dad's face, but not his name.


	21. Desires of the Heart

My Pov

I never thought there would be any other people besides us interested in other worlds. Ariel had taken us to her secret grotto and it was filled items from that came from the surface.

"Wow!" Salamon exclaimed.

"This is amazing!" Veemon said.

"Look at all the wonderful things Flounder and I have collected. I think it's from the outside world" To any person, it was a collection of random objects, but I knew to Ariel, these were treasures. "Someday, I'm going to see what's out there. I want to see other worlds. Does that sound strange?" Ariel asked.

"No. Not at all." Sora said.

"Me, Sora and our our friends are the same." I said.

"Hey, why don't we try to find that Keyhole you were talking about?" Ariel asked.

"But your father said-" Sora began to say.

"Oh, he treats me like a little girl. He never wants me to do anything. He just... He just doesn't understand." Ariel said. We left Ariel's grotto to look for the Keyhole.

* * *

No one's Pov

 _Unknown to them, the eel twins Flotsam and Jetsam, arrived in the grotto and allowed their mistress, the sea witch Ursula, to see them._

 _"But the girl could prove useful. And I've got the Heartless on my side. Triton, my old friend... Your day is coming." Ursula said. The evil witch laughed manically, confident she would succeed in her plan._

* * *

My Pov

Ariel told us that a place full of sunken ships was where her and Flounder would often find the objects she has in her grotto. We went to the place and went into one of the sunken ships. I noticed a small chest near a window. Shadow, Salamon and Veemon went over to it, but then a shark busted through the window! They swam back to us so fast they knocked me and Sora over. The shark snapped at us, trying to get to us. It backed out of the window and swam off. I had a feeling that thing would still be out there. Shadow was practically wrapped around my arm. I swam over to the and opened it. Inside was a crystal shaped like a trident.

'Haven't I seen this shape somewhere before?' I asked myself. Then I remembered. Ariel's grotto! I grabbed the crystal trident and swam outside. Of course, I had been right about where the shark had been waiting outside.

"Hikari, look out!" Ariel shouted. I turned and managed to move just before the shark could clamp down on me. However, I didn't anticipate on it turning so fast. It went to attack again and this time I was too terrified to move. I held Shadow close to me and waited for the painful death. However, I didn't feel anything. I looked to see Goofy had sunk into his shell and gotten in between the shark and us. The shark had clamped down on Goofy's hard shell and broke all his teeth. The shark swam away as fast as he could.

"You're both safe!" Salamon said, relieved.

"Thank you, Goofy!" I said. Shadow and Salamon nuzzled Goofy as if to say 'thank you'.

"Gawrsh, it was nothing Hikari. You and Shadow are my friends. I wasn't about to let that mean ol' shark hurt ya." Goofy said. I hugged my friend. I was happy to know Goofy would actually go that far to protect me. We arrived at Ariel's grotto. I handed Sora the crystal trident and placed it in the outline on the wall. We waited to see if there would be a reaction.

"Ariel, you've disobeyed me again!" a voice boomed. We all turned to see a very angry King Triton. "I told you not to leave the palace!" Then, he turned his attention to the crystal trident. His trident began to glow, raised it up and pointed at the crystal.

"Daddy, no!" Ariel cried. He ignored her and destroyed the crystal. "How could you..." Ariel swam out in anger and sadness.

"Young man and young lady, you're not from another ocean. You're both from another world. Aren't you?" Triton asked. He did know! "Then you must be the key bearer and the Princess of Kingdom Hearts."

"How did you know?" Sora asked.

"You may fool Ariel, but you can't fool me. Neither of you know your dorsal fin from your tail. As the Princess of Kingdom Hearts and key bearers, you must already know... One must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds." Triton said.

"Of course we know that, but..." I said.

"You have violated this principle. As the Princess of Kingdom Hearts, you are suppose to uphold order and protect the tranquility of the worlds. But, you've only shattered peace and brought ruin to them." Triton said. I felt a huge sting in my heart.

"Hikari's not like that!" Donald exclaimed.

"I thank you for saving my daughter. But, there is no room in my ocean for either of you or your keys." Triton said. I felt Sora grip my shoulder.

'Don't listen to him Hikari. You are bringing peace to the worlds. Not bringing them to ruin." Sora said. Salamon nuzzled my cheek, trying to cheer me up.

* * *

Ariel's Pov

How could my father do that? Why was he so against me helping them?

"My, my, the poor child suffers such deep sorrow." a voice said. I looked up to see two eels circling me.

"What a pity. If only there were something we could do..." the second eel said.

"Wait. Maybe she can be of some help."

"Yes. Maybe she can be of some help to you." the second eel said.

"Who're you talking about?" I asked.

"Oh, she would surely help you. She'd make all of your dreams come true." the first eel said.

"Ursula can help..." the second eel said. They burst into a cloud of ink.

"You called, my dear?" Ursula asked.

"You're Ursula? I was just wondering if-" I began, but Ursula stopped me.

"It's all right. Helping others is what I live for. Lei me guess. You wish to see other worlds. That shouldn't be too hard. After all, your new friends came from another world." Ursula said.

"What?" I asked.

"But they had special help- those mysterious keys." My hopes sank. I had nothing like that. "Now, now. Cheer up, sweetie. You have something special, too." Ursula said. I did? Ursula told me if I got my father's trident, she could help me see other worlds. I knew it was wrong, but...

* * *

My Pov

We swam back to the palace to see if Ariel was there. I suddenly felt a dark presence in the castle. We were almost to the throne room when I heard voices.

"The trident is my at last! And I couldn't have done it without your help, my dear." a voice said.

"Ursula, no! I didn't want this!" Ariel cried.

"Why not? Aren't you tired of following your dear daddy's orders? Oh, yes. We had a deal, didn't we? Time for a little journey- to the dark world of the Heartless!" Ursula exclaimed. I managed to look and see a half-octopus woman holding the trident and two eels circling around her.

"We cannot find the Keyhole. the first eel said.

"The Keyhole is not here." the second eel said.

"Enough!" I yelled. Ursula turned to see us.

"We have company. I'm afraid your a little too late, your highness." Ursula said. She disappeared in a cloud of ink. We had to get the trident back. Ariel came with us and we headed off to find Ursula. Shadow seemed to know the way, so we followed her. Must still be able to sense where the Heartless come from. We came to the skeletal remains that served as Ursula's domain. Inside, we found Ursula.

"Come out! You can't run!" Donald said.

"Your time has come!" Sebastian said. Ursula's glare scared both of them in silence. She threw a bottle into her cauldron and it began to bubble. King Triton had said that Ursula drew power from her cauldron. Salamon and Veemon fought the two eels.

"Terror Spiral!" Salamon said. She created a water tornado.

"Bubble Bomb!" Veemon said. I pointed Starlight at the cauldron and used Fira, Blizzara and Thunder, but it still didn't have much of an effect. That's when I remembered my Water spell.

"Watera!" I shouted. A powerful spout of water shot from my Keyblade, while Salamon and Veemon used their own attacks, and hit the cauldron. The two eels were hit by a bolt of lightning and evaporated in a green flames.

"You'll pay for this!" Ursula exclaimed. She disappeared. Shadow lead us to the Calm Depths where Ursula was. She lifted the trident into the air and became about ten times bigger. This had to be the toughest battle out of all the battles we've gone through.

"Hikari, together!" Sora pointed our Keyblades and shouted-

"Thunder!" we both shouted. We zapped Ursula and I guess it had been too much. She fell back into a cloud of ink and disappeared. A pillar of gold light came from the ground. It disappeared, revealing the trident. We returned the trident to the palace. King Triton then asked us to seal the Keyhole, which was hidden in Ariel's grotto. We went back there and the trident glowed. It lined up with the print on the wall and revealed the Keyhole. We pointed our Keyblades at it and sealed it.

"Sora, Hikari, tell me. Your world, what's it like?" Ariel asked.

"Oh, about that... sorry for lying to you." Sora apologized.

"It's okay. Besides, if you can travel to other worlds, maybe I can, too. I know I'll get there someday." Ariel said. I was happy to see Ariel keeping her spirits up. We departed from Atlantica and went onward.


	22. Halloween Town

My Pov

Soon, we came upon another world. It was very weird looking. We disembarked and found ourselves in a very spooky place. I noticed every one had changed again. I was a witch, Sora was a vampire, Donald was a mummy and Goofy was a Frankenstein-like monster. Our clothes were different too;

. Sora's clothing had become almost completely black, appearing to be made of faded leather. He wore white gloves and had clawed fingers, the shoulders of his jacket were grey, and he had very small, black, bat wings on his upper back. His normal shoes were replaced with large, black ones with pointed toes and a grey stripe on their midsections. His legs were wrapped in what appear to be black and red bandages. Sora's canines became more pointed and his face, particularly the area around his eyes, became more ashen and shadowed in appearance. His hair was a darker shade of brown and he wore an orange mask on the right side of his face, covering his right eye. The mask was circular with small horns on the top, a jagged, jack o' lantern-esque mouth, and triangular eyes. The mask's right eye was green and the left one appears to be closed or scratched out.

. Donald's entire body, save for the tips of his toes and his beak, were covered by mummy-like bandages, and a gap between his stomach and waist revealed that there was nothing under them. A similar gap was located between his right elbow and wrist. Donald's beak and feet were less vibrant in color, the feathers on his tail and "hair" looked sharp, and his eyes gained a thick, black outline around them, similar to ancient Egyptian eye makeup.

. Goofy wore a tan turtleneck sweater, a yellow, tattered, patched jacket, green pants that were equally tattered and patched, with a black left leg, black suspenders, and brown shoes with holes ripped open for his toes. All of his clothing were faded. Goofy retains his floppy ears, but they were thinner and mangier-looking than normal. He had an enormous, silver screw in the top of his head and his fingernails were pointed. His fur is black and is spiked wildly on his head around the screw. Goofy's nose became a metal cap and was tipped with a small jack o' lantern.

. I was wearing a dark blue blouse with a pale indigo section at the center, lined with a single piece of white lace on each side; while three thin white pieces of tulle stretched across the chest. Dark blue ruffles lined the bottom of the top, while a single piece of white ruffled material went on top of the chest with a single red string bow. Attached to the top were black, slightly puffed sleeves with white lace cuff. Connected to them were tight, dark blue and black gradient sleeves that had a design of gold bats and stars on them, and so far down were tied by a red string bow. White material stuck out from the bottom to match the very tiny ruffles on top of each sleeve. It came with a dark blue choker lined with white ruffles and had a fancy gem design on the center; connected to a silver piece with many dark blue spheres. An indigo-blue themed skirt with slightly darker designs nearing the bottom, lined with white pleated, ruffled material. On top of this was a split piece of material held together by a red ribbon tied into a bow. On it were small gold bats and star-shaped marks. At the center of the band was a sphere with two, very thin silver chains with gems connected to them. On my feet were dark blue and black gradient boots with very pointed toe. Gold bats and stars were printed around the heel and ankle area, while two silver chains are stretched around the boot's center to shape like diamonds and are held by a silver diamond button. On top of each boot was a milk-blue ruffled cuff with dark blue designs and four silver diamonds; while in the center hanging was a blue and silver accessory. On my head was midnight blue miniature witch cap with a print of gold bats, tiny dots, and all sorts of stars; hanging from a simple four point to an eight point. A flap of ruffled material, one lighter then the cap sticks up. A gold four-point star dangles from the very top point of the hat. It came with a pair of silver diamond dangle earrings with a gold six-point star hanging from it. To the corner was a thin stick that hangs from the side; making it resemble a magic wand(Look at Aikatsu; Magic Midnight Coord).

"Hikari, your hair is black and your eyes are like a deep red!" Sora exclaimed. Great! Now my hair and eyes have changed. I noticed that Veemon and Salamon both became black. We walked toward the square where we saw smoke coming from a house. Then, we saw several Heartless floating around near a fountain in the square. We got ready to fight them, but for the strangest reason, they didn't attack. I noticed a very strange, short and cone-shaped man with a megaphone.

"And now, allow me to introduce the master of terror, the king of nightmares—Jack Skellington!" the man proclaimed. Then the Heartless parted in a presenting fashion and a skeletal man(literally a skeleton)slowly rose out of the fountain and stroke a pose. "Bravo, Jack! Bravo! Those ghosts will be a big hit at this year's Halloween!"

"Thank you, thank you! But their movement still needs work. It's not scary enough. I want to strike bone-chilling terror. I'm going to consult the doctor." Jack said. The man went off to attend to decorations while Jack went to talk to this doctor. We went after Jack to find out what the Heartless were doing here. We walked into the lab. I noticed a Heartless laying on a table. "I don't understand. Maybe the guidance system was damaged in the explosion."

"Nonsense. My devices are always perfect!" the doctor exclaimed.

"Oh, I've got it! Why of course! The Heartless need a heart! Doctor, do you think we can add a heart to that device?" Jack asked.

"Certainly. A heart is not all that complicated. Let's get to work." the doctor said.

"To make a heart, first take a container with a lock." Jack listed. The doctor took out a heart-shaped container with a lock on it.

"We need a key to open this thing first!" the doctor exclaimed. I decided to unlock it for them. If they were lucky and succeeded, we won't have to fight the Heartless anymore. I pointed my Starlight at it and unlocked the container.

"My! That was amazing! Uh, and you are..." Jack said.

"I'm Hikari and this is Salamon. These are my friends Sora, Veemon, Donald and Goofy." I said.

"Well done, Hikari! I'd like you and your friends to be a part of this year's Halloween." Jack said, gleefully.

"What's this Heartless doing here?" Sora asked. Jack explained that he was using them for the Halloween celebration and how he couldn't get them to dance just right. They started working on the heart.

"The ingredients for a heart: Pulse. Emotion." the doctor listed.

"Fear. Hope and despair. Mix them all together, and we have a heart!" Jack explained. The doctor turned on the machine. The Heartless sat up at first, but then fell back onto the table.

"It failed! Maybe we're missing some ingredients. Let's try adding memory. Sally! Sally! Good-for-nothing girl! Don't know why I bothered creating her! Sally's got the memory we need. See if you can track her down." the doctor said angrily. I wondered what the Doctor meant by 'memory'?

"Where would this Sally be?" I asked.

"Most likely the graveyard." Jack said. That's when the strange man from before came running toward us. "Is something wrong Mayor?"

"Jack! Jack! We have a major crisis! The Heartless are completely out of control! We can't stop them!" the mayor cried. Now things were acting up. We hurried to the square to get rid of the Heartless.

* * *

 **Sorry if this short and also for the long descriptions of what Sora, Donald and Goofy look like. I put those there just in case any readers haven't seen any Kingdom Hearts(which I would be shocked). I going to basically put the descriptions of each of their outfits. Also, Veemon and Salamon become BlackVeemon and BlackSalamon in Halloween Town.**


	23. The Longing Heart

My Pov

We came to the square and saw the Heartless going crazy.

"Puppy Howl!" Salamon exclaimed.

"V-Headbutt!" Veemon said. With their help, we destroyed all the Heartless. We went to a small graveyard and saw more Heartless. After getting rid of them, I heard a yipping sound. I looked at a small grave to see a ghost dog with a glowing orange nose rise from the ground.

"Zero! Have you seen Sally anywhere?" Jack asked his companion. The little ghost flew behind a grave stone and there was a feminine gasp. It was a woman who's body was covered in seams and stitches. She had pale blue skin and was a bit more realistically proportioned when compared to other Halloween Town residents like Jack, albeit her neck was quite long and her hands and feet were rather small. There were stitches on each of her wrists, a few on her arms and legs, several on her upper chest, one on her neck, one at the top of her head, and one on each corner of her mouth, the last of which made her look as if she was sporting a Glasgow smile. She wore red lipstick and nail-polish and had long eyelashes, and her feet were covered by black shoes, worn over baggy, black-and-white striped socks. Her long, brown hair reached down to her hips and was parted in the middle. Her clothing consisted of a worn, tattered dress made up of many different scraps of cloth sewn together. While it was predominantly pale pink and grey, her dress had small areas of yellow and green near around her left and right shoulders, respectively, and each individual patch was covered in a unique black or grey pattern(save for a few patches that are a solid color). This had to be Sally.

"Is something wrong, Jack?" Sally asked.

"No, everything's going great. We're going to have the best Halloween ever. All we need now is your memory." Jack said.

"'Memory'? You mean this?" she asked, holding up a small bouquet of tiny flowers. Forget-Me-Nots. That's what the doctor meant by memory. "Jack, I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time." Sally pleaded.

"Nothing could beat what I have planned! Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envisioned it. Trust me. You're going to love it!" Jack exclaimed. Sally didn't seem so sure. We left the graveyard and went back to the lab. I dug around a little more and found a jack-in-the-box. It seemed weird, but I held on to it.

* * *

No one's Pov

 _Unaware to the group, the local trio of pranksters had heard all of the conversation. The trio was made of two boys and a girl._

 _"Lock!" A boy dressed as a devil called, jumping out of hiding._

 _"Shock!" A girl dressed a witch called, jumping out of hiding._

 _"Barrel!" The other boy dressed as a skeleton called, jumping out of hiding. "Did you hear that?"_

 _"Yeah, I sure did! A heart! What should we do?" Lock asked._

 _"Gosh, you really are stupid! Isn't it obvious?" Shock scolded._

 _"Tell Oogie Boogie." Barrel said. They ran back to their leader, who then began to plan for a way to steal the heart._

* * *

My Pov

We gave the doctor the forget-me-nots and the jack-in-the-box. Turns out, the little child's toy was the ingredient known as surprise.

"There you go. This time it's sure to work." the doctor said. He rolled to place the heart on the table. Suddenly, a boy rolled out from under the table and tripped the doctor. The heart bounced and another boy caught. The boys and a girl ran out of the lab. Jack told us they were the prankster trio known as Lock, Shock and Barrel. We ran after them, but lost sight of them soon after. Jack called for Zero who lead us the way the three kids had gone. We soon came to a manor and I spotted the kids in a walking bathtub going toward the manor. We hurried after them. We caught them just as they threw the heart down a chute. They attacked us and it was actually hard to beat them since they were small and quick. We managed to subdue them after about ten minutes.

"We were just following orders! Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart." Shock said. Oogie Boogie? I heard Sally mention him once and he was apparently a very bad influence. "it's all Barrel's fault! It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart."

"Yeah, that's right!" Lock said.

"B-But you guys said-" Barrel stammered.

"You should be ashamed!" Shock scolded. That was cruel how these two just threw their friend to the wolves. Sora pulled down a lever and the gears started turning. Shock said something about a green door. We went all around the manor looking for the green door. Soon, we found it at the foot of the manor's base. There I saw a burlap sack creature with featureless black holes for eyes. This had to be Oogie Boogie.

"Oogie Boogie, give me back the heart!" Jack yelled.

"You want it? Well, then come over here and get it!" He swallowed the heart and laughed. "Say, aren't you the Princess of Kingdom Hearts?" I cringed. I still didn't want to accept I was a princess of any kind. I simply nodded. "That's right! You're the special someone of Maleficent's little helper." I gasped. He meant Riku. "If you want, I can send you to him in flash." Oogie said. I felt my body shaking. I wanted to go to Riku.

"Hikari, no!" I snapped my attention to Sora. "He's lying!" Sora cried. I felt a tug on my dress. I looked to see Salamon, pulling on it as if telling me not to go. I realized Sora and Salamon were right. I got ready to fight.

"Oh, well. Your loss. Now, let's see if I can get their attention. Oh, Heartless!" Oogie called. Only two Heartless appeared. "This is it? Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!" This was one of the most difficult battles we ever had. No only did we have to fight Oogie, we had to dodge his gambling machines on top of that.

"Sora, me and Salamon have to digivolve." Veemon said. Sora and I held up our Digivices.

 _ **"Salamon digivolve to... BlackGatomon!"**_

 _ **"Veemon digivolve to... BlackVeedramon!"**_

Veedramon and Gatomon machine to break down the gate that blocked us from Oogie. I manage to get to the platform Oogie was on and I stabbed him in the stomach with the spike on my Keyblade. It tore open his body and thousands of bugs poured out. We left the manor only to see Oogie had given in to darkness like Jafar had. Oogie had fused himself with his manor.

"Oogie's drawing his power from those dark globs!" Jack pointed out. We hurried to destroy them, which was almost impossible. We had to deal with Heartless, fire and orbs of darkness coming at us. I found the last glob.

"Lightning Paw!" Gatomon said. She struck it hard with her paw and destroyed it. Oogie disappeared in a cloud of black dust and the manor collapsed. Then the Keyhole's silhouette appeared. Sora and I pointed our Keyblades to the sky and locked it. We went back to the doctor's lab. "Sally, why didn't I listen to you?"

"Don't feel bad, Jack. We'll come up with another plan for Halloween. Next time, we'll do it together." Sally said. This scene warmed my heart. We departed from Halloween Town and traveled onward.

* * *

Riku's Pov

This power was amazing. I finally found the strength I had been looking for. My team had become even stronger too. It was only a matter of time before Sora and Hikari got here. Once they were, I'd make Sora pay. Hikari... I'll get you back. When I do, I'll never let Sora get his hands on you again. That's when I heard Hook's voice.

"We've spotted the Keyblade brat and the Princess's vessel!" Hook called. Finally.

"You better be ready Sora. I'm going to make you suffer. Hikari is mine!" I said. I hurried to the deck and waited.

* * *

No one's Pov

 _Little did the silver-haired boy know that he would end up hurting more than his former friend. He would end up severally damaging the heart of the girl he claimed to love and, in the process, destroy himself._


	24. Neverland

My Pov

The ride to the next world was the same. My thought kept returning to Riku. What had become of him now?

"Uh, a big ship is catching up to us." Goofy said. The ship 'sailed' into view.

"Quit gawking! That's a pirate ship!" Donald yelled.

"It's going to ram us! Hold on tight!" Sora cried. The ship rammed into us. Sora and I ended up on the deck. We looked to see Donald and Goofy were gone.

"I didn't think you'd come, Sora." We looked to see Riku. "Good to see you both again." Riku said.

"Where are Donald and Goofy?" Sora asked.

"Are they that important to you? More important than old friends?" He was angrier than before. He didn't listen to me. That's when I felt it. Darkness. Riku had given in to the darkness. Kudamon jumped from the deck. He pinned both Veemon and Salamon down. "Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking... about her." Riku said, stepping aside to reveal Kairi.

"Kairi!" Sora cried. Something was wrong. She wasn't moving. Riku had been telling the truth before. Kairi lost her heart.

"That's right. While you were off goofing around and stabbing me in the back, I finally found her." Riku said. Sora ran to Kairi, but a man with a hook hand stopped him. Wait, I knew that guy. I thought and came up with a name. Captain Hook.

"Not so fast. No shenanigans aboard my vessel, boy." Hook said.

"Riku, why are you siding with the Heartless?" Sora asked.

"The Heartless obey me now, Sora. Now I have nothing to fear." Riku said.

"Riku... You're stupid! Sooner or later they'll swallow your heart!" I cried.

"Not a chance. My heart's too strong Hikari. I'll be fine. I promise." Riku said.

"Riku..." I said.

"I've picked up a few other tricks as well. Like this, for instance." He stretched out his hand. Sora's shadow rose out of the ground and stared at him. "You can go see your friends now." A trapdoor opened under Sora and he disappeared. Kudamon roughly wrapped himself around Veemon and threw him down the trapdoor. "Let's get under way, already. Keep Sora away from Kairi and Hikari until were ready to land. Hikari, come on." Riku said. I couldn't move. My body was shaking and I could actually felt cracks spreading in my heart. I heard footsteps and felt myself being lifted off the ground. I noticed Riku decided to carry me. Kudamon kept Salamon on the deck. Two Heartless carried Kairi to somewhere else, while Riku took me to another room. He sat me down.

"Riku... why did you just do that?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Riku asked, not thinking he didn't do something horrible.

"Seriously! You've turned on Sora. How could you? You haven't listen to a word I said! You've let Maleficent trick you. Sora's nearly gotten killed several times looking for you and Kairi." I said.

"Maybe I was wrong about you..." What? "I've try to win you back, but all you talk about now is Sora." Riku said, clenching his fist. Win me back?

"What do you mean 'win me back'? Back from who?" I asked. He started getting angry again.

"Don't play dumb. Sora. He's been trying to steal you from me." Riku said. He actually thought that!?

"How can you think that!" What Riku did was unexpected. He pushed me down onto the bed and pinned me down. "W-W-What are you..." I stammered, fear starting to run through me.

"Seems I have no choice. It's the only way to make you see that you only belong to me." Riku said, with a dark look in his eyes. He kissed me rather roughly and started touching my body everywhere. I was so frozen with trauma that I didn't tell him to stop and didn't push him away. I just laid there and endured everything that came.

* * *

Sora's Pov

"You don't say?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah! It was definitely Kairi. I finally found her." I said.

"Yep! No doubt about it. It was definitely Kairi." Veemon said.

"All right! Then let's go up and talk to her and find Hikari." Goofy said.

"Yeah!" I agreed.

"Sounds great. Okay, but first... how about getting off!" Donald said.

"Oh, sorry." I said. I didn't realize I had fallen on them. I looked out the door and saw several Heartless outside.

"Ahem!" We turned to see no one there, but kept hearing a voice. "How ya doin' there? Looking for a way out?" a voice asked. Then, a boy with orange hair and dressed in green jumped out of hiding.

"Who are you?" Goofy asked.

"I'm the answer to your prayers." The four of us looked at him funny "Okay, then. Fine. Have it your way." the boy said.

"But you're stuck in here too, aren't you?" I asked.

"No. I'm just waiting for someone." the boy said.

"Who?" I asked. A sparkly, yellow orb of light flew around me.

"Tinker Bell, what took you so long?" The light vanished to reveal a blonde fairy wearing a green dress. "Great job. So you found Wendy?" There was a twinkling sound which I guess was the fairy talking. "Hold on. There was another girl there, too?" He either meant Kairi and Hikari. "And you saw who? Hikari?" He knew who Hikari was? "She's being held in the captain's quarters? Alright. Time to keep that promise I made." Tinker Bell started getting huffy. "Are you crazy? There is no way I'm gonna leave Wendy or Hikari there!" the boy said.

"Aha. She must be pretty jealous." Donald pointed out. That observation caused Tinker Bell to kick Donald in the face.

"Come on, Tink! Open up the door!" the boy exclaimed.

"Ahem!" I said, trying to get his attention.

"I'm Peter Pan." he said, holding out his hand.

"I'm Sora." I said. I went to shake his hand, but he pulled it back.

"Okay, we're in this together, but only 'til we find Wendy and Hikari." Peter said. Tinker Bell sprinkled some of her dust on us. We left the hold and went through the ship looking for the girls.

* * *

My Pov

I was wrapped in a blanket. Riku had put all his and my clothes back on. I lay there, shaking and frozen. Why? What caused him to do that to me? Why did he do that to me? I still felt pain the lower region of my body. I knew I had to have bruises, but at least they were covered by my clothes. Riku was sitting on the side of the bed.

"I'm sorry Hikari, but I had to make it clear that you're mine and no one else's." Riku said as he stroked my hair. I cringed at each stroke he made on me. He got up as Captain Hook entered the room.


	25. Memories of Those Lost

My Pov

I listened as Riku and Hook talked. Salamon came running into the room, along with Kudamon. She jumped up to me and I lightly stroked her fur.

"What? So Wendy's not one of the chosen ones?" Hook asked.

"There are seven, supposedly, and Maleficent says she's not one of them. Hoist anchor as soon as possible. Leave all the dead weight behind, including her." I said.

"After the trouble of capturing her? And why those seven? What is Maleficent planning, anyway?" Hook asked.

"Who knows? As long as it means getting Kairi's heart back, I couldn't care less." Riku said.

"Hmph. You're wasting your time! The Heartless have devoured that girl's heart. I'll stake me other hand it's lost forever." Hook said.

"I will find it no matter what." Riku said.

"What about this girl? Looks more dead than alive. Is she dead weight?" Hook said.

"Don't you dare call her that!" Riku snapped. I felt somewhat flattered Riku didn't want to leave me behind, but some part of me wished he would.

"Uh, Captain..." I heard the voice of Captain Hook's lackey.

"What?" Hook asked.

"The prisoners have escaped. What's more, Peter Pan is with them." Smee said. Peter Pan? Why did that name make me feel happy?

"Blast that Peter Pan! All right, then! Bring the hostage to me cabin, Smee! Hop to it!" Hook yelled. Hook left and Riku turned his back. I wrapped my arms around Salamon. I mustered all the strength I had and ran out the door to find Sora.

"Hikari!" Riku called. I didn't stop, only ran faster. He hurt me. He was no longer the boy I loved. No longer was he the boy who had always protected me. He was just a pawn to the darkness. I ran into a room only to see a girl with curly, light brown hair and wearing a blue nightdress.

"Oh, my! Who are you?" the girl asked.

"I'm Hikari and this is Salamon." I said.

"Hello." Salamon siad.

"My name is Wendy." the girl said.

"Nice to meet you Wendy." I said. I happened to look down and saw Kairi. "Kairi!" I knelt down and shook her a little.

"Kairi!" Salamon squeaked, pawing at her leg.

"I think she must be asleep. She hasn't budge an inch since we've been in here." Wendy said. I lifted Kairi off the ground.

"Come on Wendy. They'll be here to get you and Kairi." I said. We left the hold and hurried to the deck. Shadow came out of the ground. "Shadow, go find Sora and bring him here." It took a couple of minutes, but sure enough they came running out.

"Hikari!" I heard Sora yell. I felt the pain and hurt disappear when Sora hugged me. Veemon hugged Salamon. Sora then took Kairi from me. "Kairi..." I was about to say something when I saw Kairi's hand twitch. Could her heart be nearby? That's when I realized. I had always felt that Kairi was near us. The reason is; her heart was inside of Sora. That's when a Heartless flew out of nowhere and grabbed Kairi. It flew to Riku and handed her to him. "Riku, wait!" Sora's shadow stopped him from going any further and allowed Riku to leave. We destroyed his shadow, but Sora felt the stinging pain of betrayal. Wendy had fainted from the sudden hit of the Heartless' wing.

"Well, this is as far as I can go. I've gotta help Wendy." Peter said. He picked her up and flew off.

"Hikari, are you all right?" Donald asked.

"I'm-I'm fine. Why?" I stammered.

"You seemed a little too relieved when we showed up. Did something happen?" Goofy asked. I quickly shook my head 'no'.

"Quite a codfish. that Riku- running off with the girl without even saying goodbye." Hook scoffed.

"Run off where? Tell me, where did he go?" Sora demanded.

"To the ruins of Hollow Bastion, where Maleficent resides. But you won't be getting there." Hook said. He held up a lantern and inside was a fairy. Wait, that was-

"Tinker Bell!" I cried.

"Wait a minute... You're that little Lost Girl of Peter Pan's." Hook sneered. Lost Girl? A memory flashed through my mind.

 _I hereby dub thee, Hikari and Salamon, Lost Boys." Peter proclaimed._

 _"Huh?" I asked._

 _"What?" Salamon asked. He realized his mistake._

 _"Oh. I mean Lost Girls." Peter corrected._

 _"Us? The very first Lost Girls?" I asked._

 _"What's wrong? Don't you wanna be?" Peter asked. I jumped up and hugged him._

 _"I love it!" I exclaimed._

"This is perfect. I can take my revenge on you for ruining my chance to get rid of that boy. Unless you intend on leaving your precious pixie friend behind?" Hook taunted. I spirited away my Keyblade. I didn't want anyone getting hurt. "Hand over the Keyblade and I'll spare your lives. Be glad I'm merciful, unlike the Heartless. So, which will it be? The Keyblade, or the plank?" I started hearing a tick-tock sound. Whatever it was scared Hook and he ran off, leaving everything to Smee. Sora walked to the plank and stood near the edge. He closed his eyes and jumped.

"Sora!" I cried. To my extreme relief and amazement, he flew back into view. Someone flew past Smee and grabbed the lantern Tink was in. It was Peter. He let Tink out.

"Thanks, Peter." Sora said.

"Hey, don't mention it. You didn't think I'd leave you and Tink behind, did you?" Then he turned to me. "Especially you Hikari. I promised your friends; Ventus, Terra and Aqua I'd keep an eye on you." Peter said. Ventus... Terra... Aqua... I thought back to the time I was in darkness and saw four silhouettes. The shadows faded. I saw my father and Aqua with a man and a boy. The man had dark brown hair and blue eyes. The boy had golden blonde hair and the same blue eyes as Sora. Tears flowed down my face. I remember their faces now. Tinker Bell circled around me, sprinkling fairy dust on me. I instantly floated of the ground. We defeated the Heartless easily. Peter knocked on the door of Hook's room.

"Is that you, Smee? Did you finish them off?" Hook asked. Peter held his nose and sounded just like Smee. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing.

"Aye, Captain. They walked the plank, every last one of them." Peter ran outside and looked for Smee. Peter snuck up behind him and poked him in the butt with his dagger.

"P-Peter Pa—blast you!" Hook shouted. Hook was actually surprisingly easy to beat. After we beat him, he fell overboard and Tick-Tock(the crocodile)chased him away. We went to the clock tower in London, where Wendy was waiting. Sora looked upset.

"I still can't believe it. We really flew." I happily sighed, seeing he was happy. "Wait 'til I tell Kairi. I wonder if she'll believe me. Probably not." Sora said.

"You should bring her and Riku to Neverland sometime. They can try it for themselves." Peter said. I slightly flinched at Riku's name. I still felt small amounts of pain, but then I thought back. I had felt a strange and evil darkness. It wasn't Riku's, but someone I think I might know. Meaning Riku was being controlled! He hadn't hurt me on propose. Wendy had told us that one of the faces' hands were wrong. We fixed them and the Keyhole was revealed. We sealed it.

"Well, we'll try to come back again." I said.

"Wait, Hikari. Here." Peter said, holding out a small rabbit doll. I took it and a memory flashed through my mind. _I noticed that Ven had something in his hand. Why didn't I notice it before?_

 _"Ven, what's that?" I asked, pointing to it._

 _"Oh, this is something the three of us made for you." Ven said, handing me a light brown rabbit doll, with light, plastic maroon eyes and a blue vest that was held closed at the top by a yellow button._

 _"She's so cute!" I said, hugging her to my chest._

 _"Do you like her?" Terra asked._

 _"I love her!" I said._

 _"She's cute!" Nyaromon exclaimed._

 _"What're you gonna call her?" Aqua asked. I looked at her for a minute and came up with the perfect name. The name that would describe my treasure perfectly._

 _"Takara." I answered._

"You left her here because you didn't want to lose her." Peter told me.

"Thank you for keeping her safe Peter." I said. We left and headed back to Traverse Town.


	26. Vanitas and Dorumon

Riku's Pov

 _Flashback_

 _"Hey, Sora." I said._

 _"Hm?"_

 _"When we grow up, let's get off this island. We'll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff!" I said._

 _"Sure. But isn't there anything fun to do now? Hey, you know the new girls? The one staying at the mayor's house and the one who's staying with you? Did you hear? They arrived on the night of the meteor shower!" Sora said. I stopped walking, but Sora hadn't noticed. Kyaromon stopped and looked toward the door. I turned back around to see the image of a Keyhole faintly glowing on the door._

 _End of Flashback_

I was crouched over, panting for air. I felt pain in my chest. Kudamon was just as exhausted.

"It was reckless to bring her here without at least using a vessel. Remember, relying too heavily on the darkness could cost you your heart." I heard a loud roar coming from outside. "A castaway. Though his world perished, his heart did not. When we took the princess from his castle, he apparently followed her here through sheer force of will. But fear not. No harm will come to you. He is no match for your power." Maleficent said.

"My power?" I asked.

"Yes, the untapped power that lies within you. Now, child, it's time you awakened that power and realized your full potential." Maleficent said. Green aura surrounded me and I felt even stronger. I let Sora steal Hikari from me, but not again. I'd get her back and when I do, I'll keep her where I could always find her.

* * *

My Pov

Sora and the others went to Cid to show him the gummi block. I waited outside. I wanted to get back to Merlin's. We had found all the missing pages of Pooh's book and I was eager to put it back together. They came out and I noticed Sora looking sad. Veemon tugged on Sora's pantleg.

"Sora..." Veemon whimpered.

"Sora!" Donald exclaimed.

"Now, just remember what Donald said to ya: no frowning, no sad faces." Goofy said.

"How can you be so cheerful? There's still no sign of your king." Sora pointed out.

"Aren't you both worried about him?" I asked.

"Aw, phooey." Donald said.

"The king told us to go out and find the key bearer, and we found you and Hikari. So as long as we stick together, it'll all work out okay. Ya just gotta believe in yourself, that's all." Goofy said.

"Just believe." Sora said closing his eyes and I heard Kairi's voice.

 _"I believe in you."_

* * *

Sora's Pov

 _I saw a bright light and I followed it. I came to a library. I saw two little girls and two Digimon running to an old woman._

 _"Where am I?" I asked. The old woman began telling the girls a story. Their Digimon hopped into their arms._

 _"Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived, in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open and the true light will return. So, listen, children. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your hearts will shine with their power and push the darkness away. Hikari, Kairi, do you both understand?"_

 _"Kairi!? Hikari!?" I exclaimed. I finally realized it was them. They looked around as if they could hear me. I reached out for them, but they disappeared._

"Sora?" I felt some kind of force push me back and I opened my eyes. "Are you okay?" Hikari asked.

"Huh?" I asked.

"What's the matter?" Goofy asked.

"Um, nothing." I said.

"Sora, let's go to Merlin's house and restore Pooh's world." Hikari said.

"Yeah." Donald, Goofy and Hikari started walking, but I stood still for a minute. "Kairi, did you call me?" I asked myself. I hurried after the others.

* * *

No one's Pov

 _Sora and Hikari restored the book to its rightful state. They in turn met Pooh's friends; Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Owl and Eeyore. As they left for the final time, they promised one day they would return. The blank cover of the book soon became a picture of Sora and Hikari. The two Keyblade wielders were each holding one of the bears' paws, while Piglet sat on Hikari's shoulder and Tigger bounces along side them._

* * *

My Pov

We traveled onward to another new world. All the while, I thought back to someone else from my past. It wasn't my father, Ven, Terra or Aqua. It was someone else. I thought hard. I saw an image of a boy in my head. He was like an older version of Sora. Except, he was muscular, pale had jet black hair and golden yellow eyes. That's when a name popped into my head. Vanitas. That's when a memory flashed through my mind. _I was waiting for him to come and find me. I actually was hoping he'd find me. I saw him and Dorumon in the distance and waved. "Van!" He saw me and slightly waved. That's when I clamped my hands over my mouth._

 _"What's wrong?" Vanitas asked._

 _"I called you 'Van' again." I said, scared he'd yell at me._

 _"I don't mind anymore." Vanitas said. Salamon nuzzled Dorumon. Something was wrong. I went up to him and, by his body language, he was sad._

 _"What's wrong?" I asked. He took off his helmet, revealing his jet black hair and golden eyes._

 _"Hikari, Xehanort knows your the Princess of Kingdom Hearts. He'll try to hurt you if he finds you." Vanitas said. He raised his hand and summoned a portal. "Go through the portal."_

 _"But, won't you get in trouble if he finds out you let me escape?" I asked. He placed his hands on my shoulders._

 _"Anything he does will have been worth it if it met you were safe. You helped my pain fade and for the first time since I was created, I feel happiness and have a friend. You've become what you name means. You're my light." Vanitas said. He pushed me toward the portal. "Don't worry. The portal will lead you to someone. Someone who will protect you and keep you safe. You'll have to do the same for that person." I nodded and stepped through the portal._ Vanitas had sent me to the person who'd protect me. Could he have meant Riku? If so, then I have to save him from the darkness Maleficent's plunged him into.


	27. Hollow Bastion

My Pov

We arrived at the new world. As soon as we landed, my heart started fluttering.

"Gawrsh, look at that!" Goofy exclaimed, pointing to a large castle with the Heartless sigil on it.

"I know this place..." Sora mumbled.

"You do? I feel the same..." I said.

"I wonder why... I feel this warmth inside, right here." Sora said. He placed a hand on his heart. Kairi's heart was making him feel that warmth. Did that mean this was her home?

"Aw, you're both just hungry." Donald said.

"Donald, we're being serious!" I said. That's when a loud roar echoed through the air. I jumped and latched onto Sora. Both Pikachu and Eve jumped into our arms, shaking.

"It's okay, Hikari." Sora said. I calmed down and let go of my friend. "Let's go!" We hurried to a far platform. I managed to see a beast and Riku.

"No vessel, no help from the Heartless... So tell me, how did you get here?" Riku asked.

"I simply believed. Nothing more to it. When our world fell into darkness, Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again no matter what the cost. I believed I would find her. So, here I am. She must be here. I will have her back!" the Beast exclaimed.

"Take her if you can." Riku taunted. The beast roared and lunged at Riku. He did a somersault backwards and attacked the beast with his weapon.

"Whirlwind Bullet." Riku said. Kudamon spun his body, hitting the Beast and severely injuring him. The Beast collapsed.

"Stop it!" I screamed.

"So, you finally made it. About time. I've been waiting for you, Hikari." He turned to Sora. "Sora, we've always been rivals, right? You've always pushed me as I've always pushed you." Riku said.

"Riku..." Sora said.

"But it all ends here... There can't be two Keyblade masters." Riku said. Did he not see me standing there?

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked.

"Let the Keyblade choose... it's true master!" Riku held up his hand. Kingdom Key suddenly jolted forward. Sora gripped onto it, but it disappeared from his hand and appeared in Riku's. All of us were left shocked. "Maleficent was right. You don't have what it takes to save Kairi or protect Hikari. It's up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door...and change the world." Riku said.

"But that's impossible. How could this happen? I'm the one who fought my way here with the Keyblade!" Sora exclaimed.

"You were just the delivery boy. Sorry, your part's over now. Here, go play hero with this." Riku said. He threw a wooden sword, one like the ones he and Sora often play fought with, at Sora's feet. Sora fell to his knees with grief. Riku headed back to the castle. Donald and Goofy started walking pasted us.

"Goofy. Let's go. We have to remember our mission." Donald said.

"Oh! Well, I know the king told us to follow the key and all... But..." Goofy said.

"Sora, sorry." Donald said. I couldn't believe this. Had they only stayed with us because Sora had the Keyblade?

"I can't believe you two. It's bad enough that Riku's betrayed Sora, but you guys too..." I said, clenching my fist.

"Hikari..." Goofy said, sadly.

"Don't. If a mission is more important than a friend, then just go." I snapped. Goofy followed after Donald. I knelt down to Sora. I could feel pain, betrayal and hurt radiating off him. I clasped my hands on his. He looked at me. I smiled the best I could with how many emotions were running through me. He still didn't smile. Then we turned our attention to Beast as he limped past us. He tripped and fell. We ran to help him.

"Hey, don't move. You're hurt." Sora said.

"Why... Why did you...you come here? I came to fight for Belle. And though I am on my own, I will fight. I won't leave without her. That's why I'm here." Beast said. Sora picked up the wooden sword.

"Me too. I'm not gonna give up now. I came here to find someone very important to me." Sora said.

"Yeah. I have someone important I need to save from the darkness he's been tricked into." I said. We hurried to catch up with the others. We got to the main gate, only to find it locked. I realized that we needed to find the way to unlock. We ended up having to underground to unlock the door. After battling through the Heartless we managed to get inside.

"Be on your guard. They're close, I can feel it. Are you ready for them?" Beast asked. We both nodded and started forward. Eve and Pikachu's ears perked up and they started hissing at something. "Belle?" We turned to see a beautiful young woman with brown hair wearing an elegant yellow ball gown. Darkness covered her and she became a Heartless. I covered my eyes at the sight. Sora wrapped an arm around me. Beast roared in anger and attack the Heartless, with the doors slamming shut.

"Quit while you can." Riku advised.

"No. Not without Kairi." Sora said.

"The darkness will destroy you." Riku said. His clothes changed into a bodysuit with the Heartless sigil on the chest. It was kind of like the bodysuit Vanitas wore, but the coloration was different.

"You're wrong Riku. The darkness may destroy my body, but it can't touch my heart... My heart will stay with my friends. It'll never die!" Sora exclaimed.

"Really... Well, we'll just see about that!" Riku said, shooting a ball of dark fire at Sora. I jumped in front of Sora to shield.

"Hikari!" Sora cried. I waited for the impact, but nothing happened.

"Sora ain't gonna go anywhere!" I heard exclaimed. I saw Goofy had rushed and protected us.

"You'd betray your king?" Riku asked.

"Not on your life! But I'm not gonna betray Sora and Hikari, either, 'cause they've become two of my best buddies after all we've been through together! See ya later, Donald. Could ya tell the king I'm really sorry?" Goofy asked.

"Hold on, Goofy! We'll tell him together." Donald ran over to us. "Well, you know... All for one and one for all." Donald said.

"I guess you and Sora are stuck with us, Hikari." Goofy joked.

"Donald... Goofy... Thank you." I said, gratefully.

"Thank you both!" Salamon exclaimed.

"We own you guys a lot!" Veemon exclaimed.

"How do you expect Sora to fight without a weapon, Hikari?" Riku asked.

"You can't expect Sora to beat Riku without one." Kudamon said.

"Sora has a better weapon than the Keyblade. His heart." I said.

"His heart? What good will that weak little thing do for him?" Riku scoffed.

"Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone. It's grown with each new experience, and it's found a home with all the friends I've made. I've become a part of their heart just as they've become a part of mine. And if they think of me now and then... if they don't forget me... then our hearts will be one. I don't need a weapon. My friends are my power and I'm theirs!" Sora said. Ven had said the same thing ten years ago... I looked at Kingdom Key and spoke from my heart.

 _'Kingdom Key, guardian key of Kingdom Hearts, return yourself to your rightful wielder, Sora!'_ Kingdom Key disappeared from Riku's hand and reappeared in Sora's. But this time, I would fight alone. "Sora, Salamon, Veemon, stay back. I'm fighting Riku alone." I said.

"No. If you're fighting Riku, I'm fighting Kudamon." Salamon said. Before Sora and Veemon could object, a barrier separated them, Donald and Goofy from us.


	28. Greatest Sacrifice

My Pov

I stepped forward to face the boy who I used to love. I remember that Van and Terra had become lost because of the darkness. I wasn't about to lose Riku to it too.

"You're actually going to fight me Hikari? I thought you cared about me." Riku said, pretending to be hurt. He held up his Digivice and dark energy surrounded Kudamon.

 _ **"Kudamon digivolve to... Reppamon!"**_

"I care about Riku. You're not him anymore. You're just a pawn of darkness who's taken his appearance. The real Riku would know Sora would never replace him and the real Riku would have never done that to me." I said. Riku clenched his fist. "I really don't want to fight you Riku, but if it's the only way to get you to come to your senses. After all, I'm suppose to protect the worlds and all the people in them."

"What do you mean?" Riku asked.

"It's what I had been trying to tell you in Agrabah and when we were inside Monstro. The truth of who I am. I'm the..." I said, but Riku cut me off.

"Enough! Let's fight." Riku snapped. Fine. I focused on my light again and a bubble of rainbow light formed around me.

* * *

Sora's Pov

We all had to cover our eyes because the light was so bright. When it faded, we all gaped at Hikari. Her clothes had changed dramatically. Hikari was wearing a pale blue ruffled blouse with colorful rose petals sewn around the bottom, along with a thin gold line. Wrapped around the stomach was a white cloth held with a gold crown emblem. The center material was a gradient of blue with white lace on top of it, along with gold lining on the sides. Covering the chest were several roses that come in peach, pink, purple, pale red, sapphire, gold, and hot pink. On the back was a hot pink bow lined in gold. It came with long white gloves with two layer blue gradient scallop-lined cuff, hot pink bows lined in gold with a pale pink rose sewn to the middle, and two bead necklaces of pastel rainbow colors, one of which had a heart hanging from it. Four layer skirt with the top three lined in gold. The top was white with colorful rose petals scattered on it and the layer beneath it. The second layer was pale blue, and the third is sky blue. The bottom layer was a gradient of dark to light blue with white lace designs covering it, along with a tulle design tracing the bottom and a row of tiny gold hearts. Sewn to the center-left of the skirt was a hot pink ribbon lined in gold with designs on it, including five roses, coming in hot pink, gold, sapphire, indigo, and peach. On her feet were crystal-blue pumps with a gold crown ornament on top of the foot. Around each ankle are two pale pastel bead chains with a hot pink and gold bow attached to the back. Comes with sheer pale grey stockings with white lace lines and roses designed all over it. The cuff was made of tulle. On her head was a gold tiara with five pearls adorning the top, and five white roses lining the bottom. It came with gold dangle earrings attached to a hot pink and gold bow with a gold heart in the center. Hikari threw Starlight into the air and it changed into a golden Keyblade.(Look at Aikatsu; White Sky Veil Coord and the Keyblade is the one Sora uses in the Reality Shift; Nightmare's End). Hikari's Crest and Digivice glowed, cloaking Salamon in a bright light.

 _ **"Salamon wrap digivolve to... Angewomon!"**_

"Hikari, you look like a..." Riku began, but Hikari finished for him.

"A princess? That's because I am." She didn't give him a moment to think about. She and Angewomon attacked Riku and Reppamon and they defended. They seemed to be even, but then...

"Celestial Arrow!" Angewomon exclaimed. She fired a arrow of light at Reppamon. It stopped short of running through him, but instead expelled the dark energy around him and reverting him back to Kudamon. She then herself reverted back to Salamon.

"Rainbow Spiral!" Hikari exclaimed. Hikari 'skated' around Riku and trapped him a rainbow vortex. Then the vortex closed at the top and shot down. It hit Riku and he fell to his knees. He was panting heavily.

* * *

My Pov

"Unbelievable. You were so easily defeated, even with the powers of darkness." I saw Maleficent. "You are of no further use to me." She started glowing with green fire. She shot a green fireball at Riku. I realized what the fireball would do. It would steal Riku's heart! I ran to him and pushed him out of the way. The fireball hit me in the chest and it sank into my chest. The last thing I heard were Sora, Riku, Salamon, Pikachu, Kudamon, Donald and Goofy's yells of despair.

* * *

Riku's Pov

The barrier that held Sora and his friends back dropped. Sora ran and gathered Hikari in his arms. Salamon ran to her and pushed on her arm. I was frozen with shock. Hikari had protected me. A light shone on her chest. From it emerged her heart. It was beautiful. It was crystal gem-like. It was dark green with multi colors coming from it. It started to float away, but a green fireball lunged at it and engulfed it.

"At last!" The fireball went to Maleficent. "The heart of Kingdom Hearts' princess is mine!" Maleficent cackled. The... what?

"What? Hikari's the..." I muttered.

"Yes. It did surprise me that the Princess protected you despite all the hurt you've done to her and her friends. Now, my taking control of all worlds is assured!" Maleficent said. I clenched my fists in anger. Hikari had been right. Maleficent used me. Salamon, Veemon and Kudamon all started growling and hissing at Maleficent.

"Witch!" Kudamon snapped.

"How dare you!" Veemon growled.

"You give that back right now!" Salamon yelled, fighting back tears.

"Hikari's heart doesn't belong to you!" Sora cried. Maleficent reached for the heart, but a bright light burned her hand and evaporated the flames. Maleficent cried in agony. The heart flew around the room and then came to me. I held on my hands and the heart hovered slowly down into them. I felt a warm light fill me and my clothes changed back to normal. The light cloaked Kudamon too.

"You are right there, boy. It seems the Princess's heart belongs to Riku." Maleficent said.

"To me?" I said to myself. Even after everything I did to her...

"Yes. The Princess of Kingdom Hearts can give her heart to the one who she loves fully and completely. That person can wield unimaginable power. The power to control all light and darkness. The power to rule all worlds!" Maleficent exclaimed. I looked down at Hikari's heart. It was fluttering, like a bird. I didn't care about power anymore. All that had done was made me hurt the people I cared for the most. I was about to send Hikari's heart back to her body, but then it vanished. Hikari body was engulfed in light. Then, she turned into several orbs of light and vanished.

"Hikari! Come back, Hikari!" Sora yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Hikari! Hikari!" Salamon cried. But she wasn't coming back. She was gone. And it was my fault.

* * *

My Pov

 _I'm... falling... Falling into darkness... Sora... Riku... Kairi... Salamon... Ven... Van... Terra... Aqua... Donald... Goofy... I'm sorry... I was too weak to save all of you... I just hope one day... I can see you all again. Until then... this is... goodbye. I love you all..._

* * *

Sora's Pov

I felt my heart was going to explode. I felt so much sadness and pain. Hikari... one of my most precious friends was gone. Forever. Maleficent had left and Riku had collapsed from both his injuries and losing Hikari. Salamon suddenly reverted back all the way to what I guessed was her Fresh form.

"Salamon?" I asked.

"Salamon?" Veemon asked.

"Sora... Veemon..." Salamon whimpered, as she turned into a DigiEgg and disappeared.

"Salamon!" I exclaimed.

"Salamon! Salamon, come back!" Veemon cried. I got up, but could barely stand. I stumbled over to Riku.

"Riku..." I said.

"Don't, Sora. You don't need to say anything. I was completely wrong. You need to go stop Maleficent and save Kairi." Riku said.

"We can do that together." I said. He shook his head.

"I've lost that privilege. I'm not worthy enough to save anyone or fight by you. I don't deserve to save anyone. I promised Hikari I'd protect her and never let her cry. I've broken that promise one time too many. Just go and leave me be." Riku said. I reached out for him, but he just grabbed my wrist and gently pushed it away. I knew he won't move.

"Don't worry. We'll get Kairi back and then we'll go out and find Hikari. Except this time, we'll do it together." I said. Veemon, Donald, Goofy, and I ran after Maleficent.


	29. Seeker of Darkness

Riku's Pov

I just laid there. On my hands and knees. Kudamon kept pawing at my arm, urging me to get up and go help Sora. But I couldn't. I didn't have any strength left.

"How could I have been so stupid? I loved Hikari more than anything and yet... I hurt her in the worst way possible." I asked myself.

 _"Know this. You can bring back the one you lost."_ I turned around to see a cloaked figure.

"What are you saying? There's a way to get Hikari back?" I asked. I felt Kudamon tugging on my pant leg, telling me not to trust him.

"Riku, don't!" Kudamon whispered.

 _"Yes."_ the figured answered.

"Please! Tell me how!" I begged.

 _"You need to become stronger. You showed no fear in stepping through the door to darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness, and your heart will grow even stronger. Then, you will be able to revive your princess."_ the figure said.

"Relying on the darkness is how I lost her in the first place. Why should I rely on it again?" I asked.

 _"Her heart is in darkness now. You must use darkness to find it."_ the figure explained.

"What should I do?" I asked.

" _It's really quite simple. Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself."_ the figure said. Green aura covered my body. This feeling, it wasn't like the light Hikari's heart had given me. It was cold and heavy. The figure came closer and closer and then... my vision faded to black.

* * *

Maleficent's Pov

I looked at the Keyhole. Something was wrong. I heard footsteps and saw Riku had returned. He must have returned his Rockruff.

"So, I see the path has emerged at last." Riku said. His voice was different. It was almost as if there was another person speaking.

"Yes. The Keyhole to the darkness." I said.

"Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world." Riku said. I scoffed at this.

"What do I care? The darkness holds no power over me. Rather, I will use its power to control all worlds." I said.

"Such confidence." Riku scoffed. He raised his hand and summoned a Keyblade.

It was the Keyblade made from the princesses' hearts. That's when I realized it. "Impossible! The princesses of Heart are all here! It must be her." I said. I looked at the last princess. Kairi.

"Without her heart, she will never be able to release her power." Riku pointed out. A roar echoed through the castle.

"The king's fools are here. I'll deal with them myself. You stay here and guard the princesses." I ordered. I went to where they would be.

* * *

Sora's Pov

We came to a small area and that's when I saw her. Maleficent.

"I'm afraid you're too late. Any moment now, the final Keyhole will be unsealed. This world will be plunged into darkness. It is unstoppable." Maleficent said.

"We'll stop it! After coming this far, there's no way we're gonna let that happen!" I said.

"You poor, simple fools. You think you can defeat me? Me, the mistress of all evil?" Maleficent exclaimed. Maleficent was powerful. On top of levitating out of reach, summoning comets, calling thunderbolts and summoning Heartless, I had doubt that we could beat her. That's when I heard something that made my heart race.

 _"You can beat her Sora!"_ I turned around, thinking Hikari was there, but she wasn't. That's when my Keyblade began to glow. Hikari was sending me strength from where ever she was now. I saw Veemon was glowing too. Maybe Salamon was sending him strength too.

 _ **"Veemon digivolve to... Veedramon!"**_

"V-Nova Blast Arrow MAX!" Veedramon excalimed. He fired an even more powerful V-Nova Blast at Maleficent. I then jumped above Maleficent and slashed her with my Keyblade. She was burned by the light and her cloak spread out over the ground. Riku appeared from a bubble of darkness.

"Riku!" I said.

"How ironic. The were using Maleficent from the beginning. She failed to notice the darkness in her heart eating away at her. A fitting end for such a fool." Riku said. Something was wrong. Pikachu was growling and hissing at Riku. Riku's voice... That when I saw a Keyblade in his hand.

"Is that-" Donald began, but Riku finished for him.

"Yes. A Keyblade. But unlike yours, this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts. You will see a demonstration soon enough." Riku said, disappearing. We ran through the bubble after Riku. We came to a room where the Keyhole was. We ran up some stairs. A barrier stopped Goofy just as we reached the top. There, I saw Kairi laying on the floor.

"Kairi!" I ran to her and held her in my arms, "Kairi! Kairi! Open your eyes!" I pleaded.

"It's no use. I looked up to see Riku sitting just above the Keyhole. "That girl has lost her heart. She cannot wake up." Riku said.

"What? You... You're not Riku." I said.

"The Keyhole cannot be completed, so long as the last princess of heart still sleeps." Riku said.

"The princess...? Kairi's a princess?" I asked.

"Yes, and without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened." Riku said.

"Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!" I yelled.

"But first, you must give the princess back her heart." Riku said. I felt sharp stab of pain in my chest. It was as if I had been struck in the heart with an arrow. I fell to the ground in pain.

"Sora, what wrong?!" Veemon cried.

"Sora!" Donald cried.

"What's-" I began, but Riku explained.

"Don't you see yet? The princess's heart is responding. It has been there all along. Kairi's heart rests within you!" Riku exclaimed.

"Kairi... Kairi's inside me?" I asked. I wondered how this could have happened. Then I remember just as the islands were destroyed when Kairi went through me.

"I know all that there is to know." Riku said.

"Tell me. Who are you?" I asked.

"It is I, Ansem, the seeker of darkness." Ansem started coming toward me. Donald and Veemon tried to stop him, but Ansem knocked them through a barrier and prevented them from helping me. "So, I shall release you now, Princess. Complete the Keyhole with your power. Open the door, lead me into everlasting darkness!" Ansem exclaimed. He raised his Keyblade and brought it down. That's when I heard-

 _"Sora!"_ I heard all three of my friends voice yell for me. I looked up and blocked the blade just in time.

"Forget it! There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart! I'll beat you and free Riku and save Kairi. Then, the three of us will go and find Hikari." I exclaimed.


	30. Reunion of Sorts

Sora's Pov

Fighting Ansem was hard. He was fast and powerful. But, I couldn't give up. I wouldn't give up. I had to fight and beat him. I had to save Riku, Kairi and Hikari. I had to believe. My Keyblade glowed red, then yellow, then pink and then white. The light faded and I had a different Keyblade. It was the Ultima Weapon Keyblade. It had been created with my, Riku, Kairi and Hikari's combined power. They were with me. That I knew. Fighting Ansem became easy and I beat him. Riku disappeared in a blue light.

"Riku!" I cried.

"Sora! Sora, look!" Donald exclaimed.

"The... the Keyhole!" I pointed my Keyblade at it, but nothing happened. "It won't work! The Keyhole's not finished yet!" Goofy pointed out. That's right. Ansem said as long as Kairi was asleep, the Keyhole wouldn't be completed. "Maybe we've gotta go wake Kairi up."

"I think you're right. If we can free her heart... But... But how?" I asked myself. That's when I saw it. "The Keyblade that unlocks people's hearts... I wonder." I walked over and picked up the Keyblade Ansem had used.

"Sora? Sora, hold on!" Goofy pleaded.

"No, wait!" Donald yelled.

"Sora, no!" Veemon cried. I looked at them and just smiled.

"Take care of Riku, Kairi and Hikari, okay?" I asked. With that, I stabbed myself in the chest with the Keyblade.

* * *

No one's Pov

 _As soon as Sora stabbed himself, the Keyblade floated from his chest and broke apart into the six captured hearts of the princesses. The six hearts returned to their owners. Shortly after, Kairi and Sora's hearts emerged from the Keyblade Master's chest. Kairi's heart returned to her and the last princess of heart opened her eyes. The Keyhole was completed and Sora smiled as he began to fade. His two friends and partner calling out in despair._

 _"SORA!" Veemon cried. He slowly then reverted to DemiVeemon and disappeared._

 _"Sora... Sora!" Donald cried. Kairi got up from the ground to see Sora falling back._

 _"Sora!" Kairi exclaimed. She ran to catch him, but as soon as she touched him, he disappeared just as the Princess of Kingdom Hearts had._

 _"Sora! Come back, Sora!" Donald yelled. No matter how his friends called out, Sora did not return._

* * *

Sora's Pov

 _What's... What's happening to me? Falling... falling... into darkness. That's when I heard a familiar voice._

 _"Don't worry, Sora. A light will bring you back very soon. But me... I'll be here for long time."_

* * *

Kairi's Pov

I looked to see all of the orbs of light had disappeared. Sora was gone. Donald and Goofy were just as devastated as I was. I had learned their names somehow.

"Kairi!" a voice cried. I looked and saw Xiaomon. She ran and jumped into my arms.

"First Hikari. Now Sora..." Goofy muttered.

"Hikari? What happened to Hikari!?" I asked. They were about to answer when a voice interrupted them. It was Ansem.

"So, you have awakened at last, Princess. The Keyhole is now complete. You have served your purpose. But now it's over." Ansem said. He started coming toward us. Xiaomon jumped out of my arms and hissed at Ansem.

"Don't make another move!" Donald exclaimed.

"Do you think we can stop him all by ourselves?" Goofy asked.

"I don't know!" Donald said. Ansem suddenly stopped, as if frozen in his tracks.

"Impossible..." Ansem said. He was trying to move, but something was stopping him. Then, a transparent figure appeared. It was Riku!

"No. You won't use me for this!" Riku exclaimed. He was keeping Ansem from hurting us.

"Riku!" I cried.

"You've got to run! The Heartless are coming!" Riku yelled. Several Heartless surrounded us. Just then, a beam of light hit Ansem and Riku. Riku fell forward and I ran to catch him. I actually did. He was solid! A DigiEgg appeared and hatched into Kyaromon.

"How did...?" He looked and smirked. "So, she's still protective of you." Ansem scoffed. He disappeared into the Keyhole. Who was he talking about?

"Run!" Donald screamed. All of us hurried down the stairs to escape.

"What about the Keyhole?" Goofy asked.

"Let's just get out of here!" Donald yelled.

* * *

?'s Pov

"Let's just get out of here!" That shout woke me up. I blinked my eyes and saw a dog, duck, boy, girl, Xiaomon and Kyaromon running out of the room. I looked down at myself. My skin was pale, my clothes and hair were black and I had a feeling my eyes were yellow. That's right. I'm a Heartless. But whose Heartless? I got up and dusted my dress off. I looked down to see a Shadow Heartless next to me. I touched its head and saw the image of a boy with spikey brown hair and blue eyes running next to a girl with ice blue hair, with iris highlighting the ends and sapphire blue eyes.

"You're the Heartless of the boy Sora..." The name brought a tear to my eye. "Let's go catch up to them." I said. It nodded in response and we hurried after the group. We managed to make it to the balcony area. I saw the animals calling after the people.

"Kairi, Riku, hurry!" the dog yelled.

"We can't leave yet!" Riku said.

"We can't just leave Sora and Hikari behind!" Kairi said. Hikari... that name sounded so familiar.

"We can't stay here!" the duck yelled.

"There are Heartless after us!" the dog said. They knew we were here. We jumped down into view and the duck started hitting Sora on the head.

"Confounded Heartless! Get lost, will ya?" the duck said. I pulled Sora behind me and we turned our attention to Riku and Kairi. Both Xiaomon and Kyaromon started wagging their tails happily.

"Sora! Hikari!" Kyaromon said.

"Sora! Hikari!" Xiaomon said.

"Sora? Hikari? Is that you?" Kairi asked.

"It has to be. This Heartless isn't acting like a normal one. And this one looks like Hikari did when she was little." Riku said.

"Uh-oh!" the dog exclaimed. Several Heartless surround us. Riku and Kairi protected Sora while me and the animals attacked the other Heartless.

"Sora!" Riku and Kairi cried. I turned to see Riku and Kairi were covered by darkness.

"Riku! Kairi!" the dog cried. There was a flash of light and the Heartless were destroyed. Sora had been restored to his human self.

"Kairi, Riku, thank you." Sora said.

"Sora..." Riku and Kairi said in amazement.

"Sora!" the dog and duck cried. A DigiEgg appeared and hatched into DemiVeemon.

"Sora!" DemiVeemon exclaimed, jumping into Sora's arms. Sora turned his attention to me.

"Hikari!" Sora said. I sadly shook my head.

"This is her Heartless, Sora." Riku said. That news killed his joy. More Heartless appeared. Riku kept me close to him. That's when a huge roar shook the room. I gripped on to Riku's vest. A beast jumped down and swatted the Heartless away. He stayed behind while the rest of us took off.


	31. The Heartless Kage

My Pov

We came to the End of the World. Kudamon, Veemon and Labramon were shivering. This place was filled with the remains of the worlds that had been destroyed.

"Gawrsh, is that all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?" Goofy asked.

"Those worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?" Sora asked.

"You betcha." Donald said.

"But, once that happens... they'll become disconnected again." Riku said.

"What will happen to this world? What will happen to us?" Kairi asked.

"Well... this world is made up of the remains of destroyed worlds, so it may disappear. As for all of you, you'll return to your home worlds." I said.

"What about... you? What will happen to you, Kage?" Sora asked. I cringed. I didn't know how to answer that. I didn't know what would happen to me after Ansem was defeated. We started crossing the Final Dimension and came to the Giant Crevasse. It was easy to travel through since there seemed to be no Heartless. We came to a sparkling pool and dove in. That brought us to the World Terminus. Going through it, we were teleported to each world Sora and Hikari had previously visited(In case any of you are wondering, yes Riku and Kairi's appearances changed when they went to the illusions Atlantica and Halloween Town). Then we found ourselves in the 100 Acre Wood. It was such a peaceful world. No Heartless or darkness could touch this world.

"Can we rest for a minute?" Kairi asked. She was exhausted. Veemon, Kudamon and Labramon all collapsed.

"Let's rest a minute and gather our bearings before going any farther." Riku said. Soon, we rested and went on. After going through one more gate, we came to the Evil Grounds. There, we were in free 's when I saw Bald Mountain. Wait, that was home to... Chernabog. Just then, a gigantic, muscular, humanoid demon appeared. His skin was entirely colored black, and he was so large that any of us were roughly the size of his head. His head sported two curved horns, he had four fangs in his mouth, and his eyes were a glowing yellow. He had enormous, black, bat-like wings, and his wingspan was larger than he was tall.

"Chernabog..." I said. For just any person going up against him, they would've had to have been suicidal. But, together, we defeated him rather easily. Chernabog disappeared in an explosion of fire after a battle, revealing the passageway deeper into the mountain. We flew down farther and came to the Volcanic Crater. I looked around and saw remnants of the worlds that had fallen in darkness. There were trees and small towers from Enchanted Dominion, the demonic trees and the front door of the Dwarfs' house from Dwarf Woodlands, stone tapestries from Castle of Dreams, and a small glass sphere from Beast's Castle. We then came to the Linked Worlds, where we were forced to fight a swarm of Heartless until the sigil block broke and we came to the Final Rest.

"I think this may be our last chance to rest up and prepare." Sora said. Each of us took a minute. I noticed Riku gripping a place on his chest. Where his heart was.

"Riku?" I asked. He looked at me with a pain-filled look in his eyes.

"I'm fine. I just need to rest." Riku said. He was lying. It was probably the darkness Ansem had drowned his heart in. Which meant Ansem was up ahead. After resting, we stepped through the door. We arrived at the Destiny Islands.

"Is this... Is this our island?" Sora asked.

 _"This world is connected."_ I heard Ansem.

"What was that?" Goofy asked. I saw the smaller island with the Paopu Fruit Tree disappear.

 _"Tied to the darkness... soon to be completely eclipsed. There is so much to learn. You understand so little."_ The ocean turned purplish-black. _"A meaningless effort."_ The ground began to shake. _"One who knows nothing can understand nothing."_ Ansem said. A light flashed and the island had changed dramatically. I turned and saw a girl with ice blue hair with iris blue highlighting the ends standing near the edge of the crumbling world.

"Who is that?" I asked. I pointed to the girl. I saw their expressions turn to pure shock.

"Hikari!" everyone cried. The girl known as Hikari turned around, but as she did, a dark bubble formed around her. That's when her image faded and was replaced with Ansem. Kudamon, Veemon and Labramon all became angry and started shaking in anger.

"Don't bother. Your voices can no longer reach her where she is. Her heart belongs again to darkness. She sacrificed her own heart so that Riku could escape my hold. All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, it grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came. You see, darkness is the heart's true essence." Ansem said.

"That's a lie!" Riku said.

"The heart may be weak and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!" Sora said. Ansem levitated off the ground and hovered.

"So, you have come this far and still you understand nothing. Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!" Ansem said. Ansem's Guardian appeared behind him. He was wrong. Light will never fade. True, every heart is born from darkness, but even if the heart returns there its light never truly fades. We managed to beat Ansem, but I knew it was far from over. He flew back into the brush. The whole island began shaking and cracked in two. There Ansem hovered. I was the first to go after him and a barrier prevented the others from coming after me.

"Kage!" Kairi cried.

"I'll be fine!" I said.

"You seem sure of yourself, Heartless." Ansem disappeared and in his place was a Darkside. This Darkside was relatively easy to beat. Then, I had to face Ansem on my own. It was nearly impossible. "You are weak. How could the Princess of Kingdom Hearts have such a weak Heartless?" Ansem said.

"Don't listen to him Kage! You can beat him. Stay strong!" Riku said. Riku was right. I had to be strong. I couldn't back down. Starlight began glowing. It changed into a different Keyblade. It was a shiny, gold color, while the handle itself was a light silver. The "blade" was a wider, pearly white metal bar with two rows of gold chains circling around it and a snow white angel wing at the end of the bar. The Keychain at the end of the handle was a gold Kingdom Hearts symbol with two tiny angel wings and it was attached to the hilt of the Keyblade with a silver chain. This represented Hikari's light.

"I'll call you Angel's Light." I said. I actually defeat Ansem by myself. That's when everything became black.


	32. End of the World

My Pov

We came to the End of the World. Veemon, Kudamon and Labramon were shivering. This place was filled with the remains of the worlds that had been destroyed.

"Gawrsh, is that all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?" Goofy asked.

"Those worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?" Sora asked.

"You betcha." Donald said.

"But, once that happens... they'll become disconnected again." Riku said.

"What will happen to this world? What will happen to us?" Kairi asked.

"Well... this world is made up of the remains of destroyed worlds, so it may disappear. As for all of you, you'll return to your home worlds." I said.

"What about... you? What will happen to you, Kage?" Sora asked. I cringed. I didn't know how to answer that. I didn't know what would happen to me after Ansem was defeated. We started crossing the Final Dimension and came to the Giant Crevasse. It was easy to travel through since there seemed to be no Heartless. We came to a sparkling pool and dove in. That brought us to the World Terminus. Going through it, we were teleported to each world Sora and Hikari had previously visited(In case any of you are wondering, yes Riku and Kairi's appearances changed when they went to the illusions Atlantica and Halloween Town). Then we found ourselves in the 100 Acre Wood. It was such a peaceful world. No Heartless or darkness could touch this world.

"Can we rest for a minute?" Kairi asked. She was exhausted. The Digimon all collapsed.

"I'm so tired." Veemon said.

"Heartless are around every turn." Labramon said.

"So Ansem must be close by." Kudamon said.

"Let's rest a minute and gather our bearings before going any farther." Riku said. Soon, we rested and went on. After going through one more gate, we came to the Evil Grounds. There, we were in free 's when I saw Bald Mountain. Wait, that was home to... Chernabog. Just then, a gigantic, muscular, humanoid demon appeared. His skin was entirely colored black, and he was so large that any of us were roughly the size of his head. His head sported two curved horns, he had four fangs in his mouth, and his eyes were a glowing yellow. He had enormous, black, bat-like wings, and his wingspan was larger than he was tall.

"Chernabog..." I said. For just any person going up against him, they would've had to have been suicidal. But, together, we defeated him rather easily. Chernabog disappeared in an explosion of fire after a battle, revealing the passageway deeper into the mountain. We flew down farther and came to the Volcanic Crater. I looked around and saw remnants of the worlds that had fallen in darkness. There were trees and small towers from Enchanted Dominion, the demonic trees and the front door of the Dwarfs' house from Dwarf Woodlands, stone tapestries from Castle of Dreams, and a small glass sphere from Beast's Castle. We then came to the Linked Worlds, where we were forced to fight a swarm of Heartless until the sigil block broke and we came to the Final Rest.

"I think this may be our last chance to rest up and prepare." Sora said. Each of us took a minute. I noticed Riku gripping a place on his chest. Where his heart was.

"Riku?" I asked. He looked at me with a pain-filled look in his eyes.

"I'm fine. I just need to rest." Riku said. He was lying. It was probably the darkness Ansem had drowned his heart in. Which meant Ansem was up ahead. After resting, we stepped through the door. We arrived at the Destiny Islands.

"Is this... Is this our island?" Sora asked.

 _"This world is connected."_ I heard Ansem.

"What was that?" Goofy asked. I saw the smaller island with the Paopu Fruit Tree disappear.

 _"Tied to the darkness... soon to be completely eclipsed. There is so much to learn. You understand so little."_ The ocean turned purplish-black. _"A meaningless effort."_ The ground began to shake. _"One who knows nothing can understand nothing."_ Ansem said. A light flashed and the island had changed dramatically. I turned and saw a girl with ice blue hair with iris blue highlighting the ends standing near the edge of the crumbling world.

"Who is that?" I asked. I pointed to the girl. I saw their expressions turn to pure shock.

"Hikari!" everyone cried. The girl known as Hikari turned around, but as she did, a dark bubble formed around her. That's when her image faded and was replaced with Ansem. Kudamon, Veemon and Labramon all became angry and started shaking in anger.

"Don't bother. Your voices can no longer reach her where she is. Her heart belongs again to darkness. She sacrificed her own heart so that Riku could escape my hold. All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, it grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came. You see, darkness is the heart's true essence." Ansem said.

"That's a lie!" Riku said.

"The heart may be weak and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!" Sora said. Ansem levitated off the ground and hovered.

"So, you have come this far and still you understand nothing. Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!" Ansem said. Ansem's Guardian appeared behind him. He was wrong. Light will never fade. True, every heart is born from darkness, but even if the heart returns there its light never truly fades. We managed to beat Ansem, but I knew it was far from over. He flew back into the brush. The whole island began shaking and cracked in two. There Ansem hovered. I was the first to go after him and a barrier prevented the others from coming after me.

"Kage!" Kairi cried.

"I'll be fine!" I said.

"You seem sure of yourself, Heartless." Ansem disappeared and in his place was a Darkside. This Darkside was relatively easy to beat. Then, I had to face Ansem on my own. It was nearly impossible. "You are weak. How could the Princess of Kingdom Hearts have such a weak Heartless?" Ansem said.

"Don't listen to him Kage! You can beat him. Stay strong!" Riku said. Riku was right. I had to be strong. I couldn't back down. Starlight began glowing. It changed into a different Keyblade. It was a shiny, gold color, while the handle itself was a light silver. The "blade" was a wider, pearly white metal bar with two rows of gold chains circling around it and a snow white angel wing at the end of the bar. The Keychain at the end of the handle was a gold Kingdom Hearts symbol with two tiny angel wings and it was attached to the hilt of the Keyblade with a silver chain. This represented Hikari's light.

"I'll call you Angel's Light." I said. I actually defeat Ansem by myself. That's when everything became black.


	33. Journey's End and New Beginning

My Pov

"Wha...?" I turned and to my relief, Sora and the others were with me again.

"Behold the endless abyss! Within lies the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts!" Ansem exclaimed. I looked to see a large white door with colored stain glass near the top. The Door to Darkness. "Look as hard as you are able. You'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light! From those dark depths are all hearts born! Even yours." We all looked down and gasped. The World of Chaos Heartless. "Darkness conquers all worlds!" Sora and the others could no longer levitate. Donald and Goofy disappeared into one of the monster's chambers while Sora, Riku and Kairi fell into the dark abyss.

"Sora! Riku! Kairi! Don't give up!" I cried. That's when I heard a very warm voice call out to them.

 _"You guys are giving up already? Come on, Sora, Riku and Kairi. I thought you were all better than that."_ They disappeared for a minute then flew back up to me. The 4 of us began to attack Ansem. He was stronger than before. That's when I saw he was connected to The World of Chaos. After having injured him, he laid back and a Heartless sigil covered him. I felt rage fill. He was healing himself.

"How do we beat that thing? How can we beat him?" Kairi asked.

"There's only one way. We have to go in several chambers and destroy the three body cores in or to get to the main one there." I pointed to the middle that was protected by a barrier. Sora, Riku and Kairi's Digivices then activated.

 ** _"Veemon digivolve to... Veedramon!"_**

 ** _"Kudamon digivolve to... Reppamon!"_**

 ** _"Labramon digivolve to... Opposummon!"_**

I felt my rage growing until darkness covered Angel's Light. It had been changed. It was a glossy, black color, while the handle itself was a charcoal gray. The "blade" was a deep crimson metal bar with two rows of black thorns circling around it and a jet black, tattered bat wing at the end of the bar. The Keychain at the end of the handle was a crimson Kingdom Hearts symbol with two tiny bat wings and it was attached to the hilt of the Keyblade with a deep purple chain. This represented Hikari's darkness. "I'll call you Devil's Darkness." I said.

A portal opened near the main core. We dove in and destroyed the core there. The next one opened near Ansem. We dove through to find Goofy. We defeated the Heartless that were guarding the core and destroyed it. We flew out and found the last body core was inside The World of Chaos's face. We circled around and dove through the dark portal. There we found Donald. We destroyed the last core and flew out just before the face exploded. We were together again. We attacked the main core together and destroyed it. Ansem released himself from the Heartless' safety. This time, he was going down. He was so much stronger than before.

"Don't give up!" Sora said.

"We've come this far!" Riku said.

"Together we can beat him!" Kairi said. They were right. Devil's Darkness became Starlight again. The three Crests all became bright as stars as the Tamers' Digivices activated.

 ** _"Veedramon digivolve to... AeroVeedramon!"_**

 ** _"Reppamon digivolve to... Kyukimon!"_**

 ** _"Opossummon digivolve to... Pajiramon!"_**

"V-Wing Blade!" AeroVeedramon said. He formed a V-shaped energy substance that connected to the horn on his snout to the edges of its wings, then he soared towards Ansem.

"Blade Twister!" Kyukimon said. He spun into a twister and then sliced Ansem at such speeds that the damage wasn't realized until after the attack.

"Treasure Bow!" Pajiramon said. She fired arrows of light from her crossbow. The four of us then pointed our weapons at Ansem and shot beams of light toward him. That was the final attack needed. The World of Chaos was destroyed and Ansem was left powerless.

"It is futile. Your Keyblades alone cannot seal the door to darkness." He reached out for the door. "Kingdom Hearts! Fill me with the power of darkness..." Ansem said. The door slowly began to open. Streams of black smog started steep out of the crack between the two doors. "Supreme darkness..."

"You're wrong. I know now, without a doubt. Kingdom Hearts... is light!" Sora said. As if by Sora's words, the darkness turned into a bright light that destroyed Ansem. We hurried to the door and started pushing to close it. I happened to look and saw hundreds of Shadow Heartless and several Darksides on the other side.

"We have to hurry!" I said. No matter how hard we tried, the door was too heavy. That's when a hand shot out and grabbed the door. I thought for a minute it was Ansem, but I quickly realized it was a girl wearing a cloak that covered her whole body, including her face. Whoever it was started pulling on the door. They were helping us. With the girl's help, the door started closing shut. I then looked to see someone had destroyed the Darksides. I saw a gold light and the outline of a mouse.

"Your Majesty!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed. That was their King?

"Now, everyone! Let's close this door for good!" the King said.

"Close it, quick!" Donald cried.

"But, your king..." Riku said.

"Don't worry. There will always be a door to the light." the King said.

"Guys, you can trust King Mickey." Goofy said.

"Donald, Goofy, thank you." Mickey said. We pushed the door closed all the way. We pointed our Keyblades at it and sealed the door. It glowed blue and vanished. That's when I realized who the girl had been.

"Hikari..." I said.

"Huh?" Kairi asked.

"The girl who helped pull the door closed was Hikari." They seemed devastated by what I said. "That just means... she's still out there." I said. That gave them new hope.

We had been walking for a while, but soon came to a grassy plain with a dirt road. Donald and Goofy's clothes had changed. AeroVeedramon, Chirinmon and Cerberumon had degenrated all the way back to DemiVeemon, Kyaromon and Xiaomon.

"Well, now what do we do?" Donald asked.

"We've gotta Hikari's heart and King Mickey." Sora said.

"How are we going to do that?" Riku asked.

"Yeah. Where do we start looking?" Kairi asked.

"And where would we start lookin' for that there door to the light?" Everyone looked at me, but I just shrugged my shoulders. Suddenly, an egg rolled into view. It then hopped to me and then hatched, revealing a small white Digimon.

"YukimiBotamon!" the Digimon squeaked. Then, in my hands, appeared a Digivice.

"Wow Kage! Now your a DigiDestined too!" Kairi said. I was? But, how could I be? I'm not even human. That's when a dog walked into view. Wait, that was... Pluto.

"Pluto?" I said. He turned his head and in his mouth was a letter and a strange, star-shaped necklace dangling by the cord.

"Hey, Pluto, Where have you been?" That's when they noticed the two items in the dogs mouth. "Gawrsh, that's the King's seal!" Goofy exclaimed.

"That's Hikari's Wayfinder!" Riku said.

"Hey, have you seen King Mickey and Hikari?" Sora asked. Pluto simply turned and started running farther down the path. We all looked at each other. "Guys, let's go!" We hurried after Pluto. If the Wayfinder was an item Hikari kept close to her and Pluto had it, that meant she had to be nearby. We all laughed.


End file.
